(Quick News Africa)- New designs have been made in readiness for the commencement of rehabilitation work on the Apapa Wharf Road in Lagos, with the aim of making it last for 30 years after it has been completed and commissioned for use.Babatunde Fashola, who is the minister of power, works and housing, stated this at the weekend, while interacting with newsmen in Abuja on the Federal Government’s efforts towards the road’s rehabilitation valued at N100 billion.
In a statement issued by Hakeem Bello, his special adviser on communications, Fashola reiterated that the Apapa Area in Lagos is a priority for the Federal Government under the ministry’s programme to solve the issue of roads leading to critical ports in the country.
“I just want to appeal to residents of Apapa, to people whose livelihood depends on Apapa, that Apapa is one of the priority roads under our priority of Works to solve roads that lead to critical ports. We’ve done the design, it’s ready and it’s going to be a concrete road, I believe, that will last another 30 years, so we are close to starting work,” he said.
The minister, however, lamented that “the cost that we are getting from the contractor there is in the region of about N100 billion and above, but the annual budgetary appropriation that is approved for us is about N7 billion. And then, there are debts that we met.”
According to him, “year on year , you will see that the provisions for the budget funding of Apapa and the Tin Can Island and Mile 2 – Oworonsoki Roads, all of which evacuate the port, have not been sufficient really to deal with the cost”.
Fashola, who explained that a couple of private companies had offered to work with the government in terms of fixing Wharf Road, added that only the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding was needed before approaching the Federal Executive Council to approve the projects for execution.
The minister, who was certain that work would start in a couple of weeks, also explained that the government wants to be clear on whether the companies’ offers were simply Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or they may want tax refund at the end of the day.
This, he said, is due to the fact that the challenge of inadequate budgetary allocation had affected the state of the roads over the years.
