We’ll Complete 337km East-West Road By December 2021 – FG

The Federal Government has come out to say that it is committed to completing the 4 sections of the East west highways dualisation projects in the Niger Delta region by December 2021.

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio revealed this while he spoke recently in Abuja.

According to him, with the recent release of N20 billion, the project would experience accelerated actions beginning from November.

He added that a total of N9 billion of the N20 billion has already been released and distributed to the contractors handling the projects.

His words, “You must have roads to be able to carry your products across. Mr. President has graciously returned the East West road construction back to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

“And he has put in his speech that they must commission that road between now and December 2021. And what it means is that we don’t have time at our hands and we must get cracking. The time for real construction in the Niger delta region is during the dry season, so by November to February we will start.

“The release of the money is timely and he has also promised to assist the ministry in any way possible to ensure that road is completed. In my opinion I said the road was over prized and that I will not be able to entertain anything about variation.”

“And that we should attempt to do the road at the original cost. I had to tell the contractors that I want to see the value further money that has been put in there. So far the Federal Government has spent about N331 billion on the road from Warri, the initial cost remain about N102 billion.

“So the release of this N20 billion, what we are looking for now will be about N82 billion and that’s what we are hoping on. So that as soon as they exhaust this amount we make sure that the next amount is made available to them. The initial release as of yesterday was about N9 billion.”