The Federal Government on Friday revealed that the on going second Niger bridge in the south east will be completed next year.
The minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola dropped this hint at the budget defense of the senate committee on works in Abuja.
According to Fashola, “by the end of first quarter of 2022 you can walk on either sides of the bridge from one end to the other”.
He emphasised “we hope to finish second Niger bridge next year (2022), whether it is quarter two or quarter three, am not yet in a position to tell you, some of the more informed engineers here will tell you.
“We lost time in 2020 because of COVID-19″, we are still complying with Covid-19 guidelines, NCDC rules”.
He presented N450 billion as the 2022 budget proposals for the ministry and its parastatals, saying it covers capital expenditure, personnel cost and others.
Reviewing the N350billion 2021 budget performance, Fashola said the ministry was owing liabilities to the tune of N400 billion to contractors.
He beamoaned that the 2021 budget was insufficient to finance all the projects under review.
Responding to concern raised by a member of the committee on the utilisation of Abacha loot for infrastructural development, the minister stated that the “Abacha release was for specific projects and we cannot go outside the agreement we signed”.
He enumerated the projects to include: Mambilla hydro project, East-west road, Abuja-Kano highway, 2nd Niger bridge and Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Senator Chukwuka Utazi, representing Enugu north had lamented deplorable state of roads in part of the south east and urged the minister to intervene particularly ahead of Christmas.
The minister however allayed his fear “Our plans is to provide relief during the ember months and to continue to make remediation during Christmas”.
Speaking on some the challenges of the ministry on payment of compensation Fashola said “the problem of compensation is they are inflated and where we pay, the real beneficiaries come back and say they received paltry amount from third parties”.
Consequently, the minister said “any state that does not solve the compensation problem, we have been mandated to stop work in such a place”.
He explained that in the 2022 budget, 854 highway contracts and 795 projects were captured.
He added “the funding support we need is not only in capital side, but also on overhead side” Fashola remarked.
Meanwhile, chairman of the committee, Senator Adamu Aliero, representing Kebbi central assured that the committees of both the House of Representatives and the senate would liaise with the leadership to enhance the performance of the ministry.
“We are engaging the leadership on the road sector, to help the ministry to perform.
“It is a critical sector and we have to do something between now and 2023, we are not unmindful of the challenges of the ministry” Aliero said.
