The Federal Government has said that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Second Niger Bridge, and the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway are among projects to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, IgbereTV reports.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made this known in a live television programme monitored by IgbereTV on Thursday.
He said, “The Second Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano roads are part of the projects under the Federal Government’s essential infrastructure development fund and their expected delivery dates are in quarter one of 2022.”
The minister maintained that it was when the current government came to power that the real construction work began on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
Fashola said, “Since 2007, no measure of reasonable construction work took place on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, except palliatives. It was when this government came that construction really started.
“Those who don’t use the road will not appreciate what is going on there, but those who use the road on a daily basis for their survival will tell you that the bottlenecks and traffic time on that road had significantly reduced.”
The minister said about one year was lost in the construction process, when he was told that the initial plan was to deliver the road next year.
He said, “That was the plan and you know that we’ve lost almost a year of work and I complained at the time when the budget for that road was reduced from N31bn to N10bn, at the time we were owing the contractors N15bn.
“Essentially, no work was done in that year 2017 because the contractors specifically stopped work.”
The minister maintained that the first quarter of 2022 remained the expected delivery date for the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and other essential infrastructure projects. He however pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed work on some of the projects.
“Mind you, as I speak to you now, we have lost essentially the prime of our working period, which is the dry season in the COVID-19 period. We have to try and recover all of that,” Fashola said.
He said that foundation works had been completed for the Second Niger Bridge, while work is still in progress.
