The Federal Executive Council has approved N87 billion to upscale the country’s road infrastructure in the North-Central, South-west, middle belt and South-South geo-political zones.
This was disclosed by the Ministers of FCT and Works and Housing, Muhammad Bello and Babatunde Fashola, respectively after the Council met on Wednesday at the State House, Abuja.
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The funds would be used to construct:
• A road linking Shehu Yar’adua Way with the Kubwa Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory.
• Oyo–Ogbomosho and,
• the Loko – Oweto bridge.
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The FCT Minister explained that the road linking Shehu Yar’adua Way with the Kubwa Expressway in the Federal Capital Territory, would serve the adjourning districts of Mabushi, Kado, Katampe and Jahi as well as generally enhance overall decongestion of traffic in phases I, II, III and IV of the FCT development plan, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
What they are saying
Muhammad Bello said, “During the FEC meeting of today, there was an approval of a contract for the full-scale development of arterial road which we call N-20, which is the road that is linking Shehu Musa Yar’Adua way, also called the northern park way, with the Murtala Mohammed way, popularly known as the Kubwa expressway.
“This project involves the full-scale construction of that road, including a number of bridges and the normal telecommunication, power and water lines in line with the general standard of roads in the FCT.
“It is a contract of N30, 686, 609, 000, with a completion period of 32 months and the project is within phase II of the federal capital city.”
Fashola disclosed that the two memoranda presented by his ministry were also approved by the Council.
He said, “The first one related to the Oyo-Ogbomosho highway, which is the 52-kilometer part of the Ilorin – Ibadan 145-kilometer highway. The remaining part is the Oyo to Ogbomosho part which is 52 kilometers.
“We needed to adjust some things in the scope of work, the thickness of the pavement from 500mm to 560mm to also change the asphalt to polymer-modified bitumen and also the shoulders from surface dressing to fully asphalted inside and outside shoulder.”
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Speaking on the second project he said: “The second similar project we are trying complete is the Loko-Oweto Bridge. That is the bridge across the River Benue that links Nasarawa and Benue states and provides a major time-saving detour, about four hours, for people trying to come from south-south, Benue, through to Nasarawa to Abuja.
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“So, the approval given today was a N9.348 billion variation to complete the bridge component or remaining work on the bridge.”