The Presidency has revealed that so far the resumed work on the second Niger Bridge in the Southeast has gulped a total sum of N400 Billion. This is even as the Presidency announced that the bridge will be ready for commissioning by President Muhammadu Buhari in October this year.
The Chief of Staff to the President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who spoke today, March 8, after inspecting the progress of work on the bridge along with senior government officials, confirmed that work on the Bridge has so far gulped over N400 billion and that the administration is satisfied that the project would finally be delivered in October.
Professor Gambari said that out of the N400 billion already spent, the previous administration committed N10 billion into the project, adding that contrary to insinuations, the project is being funded 100 percent by the Nigerian government.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who led the Chief of Staff on the inspection tour announced that there would be power disruption around the bridge head for two weeks in April this year to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria to relocate and realign the transmission lines to pave the way for the completion of the ring roads connecting the bridge from all routes.
The minister also announced that with the completion of concrete work on the bridge, making it possible for a walk from the beginning to the end of the 1.6 kilometres stretch, the minor alignments on the structure would be wrapped up before the end of April.
Speaking on whether there would be tollgate at the Second Niger Bridgehead, Fashola said that his priority is to complete the road before delving into the suitability or otherwise of the road for tolling.
The minister said that although there is a Federal Executive Council approval for the tolling of 12 highways in the country, the decision on tolling the 2nd Niger Bridge head is yet to be made by the federal government.
He said that there are ongoing to be construction of facilities that have the semblance of toll gates at the bridgehead.
Speaking to the presidential entourage, which also included the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige and the Managing Director of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, Dr. Uche Orji, the Managing Director of Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, Lars Richter, said that the level of work on the bridge, which they started in earnest in 2018, had reached 93 percent.
Richter said that despite the difficult terrain where the bridge is situated, the company deployed a special technology to stabilise the ground for the construction work to progress in earnest and provide environmental safety for all the communities around the area.
It will be recalled that the 2nd Niger Bridge, which was officially started in 2014 by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, however gathered much steam in 2018 when the project was given adequate and sustained funding by the Buhari government.
