According to David Umahi, the minister of works, the nation needs to spend N217 billion to rebuild 260 roads and 8 bridges.
Inaugurating four road project committees on Thursday in Abuja, the minister made this disclosure.
He claimed that the committees were being established in order to maintain the road and make sure that contractors carried out the agreements made.
The committees are responsible for overseeing the dualization of Section III of the East-West Road in Port Harcourt (Eleme Junction) and the Benin-Warri Dual Carriageway (Sections I, II, and III).
“This ministry’s directors got together, and we decided to form a taskforce that will live in these places for effective oversight.
The contract we signed under Section 51 of the General Conditions of the contract allows us the right and authorization to redefine the projects, and they will redesign the roads to fit the site conditions.
In order to spare our staff from hardship, we are exploiting the fact that we can rescope the projects and improve their quality. The road will be rebuilt using one foot of concrete. The bills to redefine it are already in the works, the minister said.
According to Umahi, the highways connecting Eleme and Onne Port as well as Benin and Warri are receiving substantial attention from the Federal Government.
“Let me kindly report that the ministry contacted Mr. President on 260 projects around the federation that require extremely immediate and prompt attention.
“The projects, whose total cost is N217 billion, are a result of National Assembly resolutions, public clamour, and compilations from controllers of our states.
“We have sent it to Mr. President, and the National Assembly is aware of that, and he has directed that we submit at FEC for discussions,” he stated.
He continued by saying that President Tinubu is devoted to improving the country’s road infrastructure and that roads are crucial for revolutionising the nation’s trade, education, security, and electricity.
Regarding the president’s approval of funding, the former governor of Ebonyi stated that money had been set aside for the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos’s reconstruction.
“Last week, we had a lot of failures on our East-West Road between Warri and Cross Rivers,” the minister said, lamenting the breakdowns of several segments of the East-West Road.
“We had 12 points that completely collapsed, and the entire section could collapse if there is another flood.” We need to repair all of those roads because three bridges completely collapsed.
