Public Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola says President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration has delivered three critical infrastructure projects defying solutions for decades.
The minister said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the 21st edition of the Town Hall Meeting which focused on the achievements of the Federal Government in Infrastructure Development.
The Nigerian News Agency reports that the town hall meeting was organized by Information and Culture and the National Guidance Agency (NOA).
In a presentation, Fashola said that the Apapa-Oworonshoki highway in Lagos state, known for congestion and disrepair for decades, was one of the difficult projects.
He said the highway built in 1970 had intermittently failed and appeared to have defied solution in the country’s history.
Fashola said that Buhari found a critical infrastructure solution with the construction of a new 37 km road from the Apapa port to the toll gate that would last at least 50 years after its completion.
The minister also identified the Bodo-Bonny bridge in Rivers, which was the only access to Nigeria‘s liquefied natural gas site.
“For decades, this place can only be accessed in bad weather, which is usually where people can’t get there for days.
“Three attempts had been made by the administrations to build the bridge, but they all failed,” he said.
Fashola said that the Buhari administration managed to build the first road and bridge linking Bonny Island in very challenging environment and ground conditions.
The third project according to Fashola is the Second Bridge over Niger which he said will be delivered and inaugurated before the end of the year.
The minister said Niger’s second bridge had always emerged as an electoral statement until Buhari broke the curse.
The minister said that the administration awarded 1,019 infrastructure contracts covering 859 projects across the country and no state was left out without benefiting from the projects.
He said that the administration also took the initiative to fix the roads within the federal tertiary institutions and that the impact was really worth it.
“We are at 76 federal colleges that we have completed and commissioned 29 and starting a round of 22 last year before the ASUU strike.
“Our promise of change as a party and government is manifesting itself in the area of road transport infrastructure.
“The money that we borrow is being invested throughout Nigeria and is fueling growth,” he said.
NAN
