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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Construction of the 32-kilometre East Wing section of Ibadan Circular Road is at no cost to Oyo State Government and the entire project will be completed in 2022.
ENL Consortium Limited, the company handling the project, under Build Operate and Transfer (BoT) arrangement, expected to span 35 years, told newsmen in Ibadan during an inspection tour of the ongoing project.
The company’s Executive Director in the South West, Kemi Jorge, said: “We did speak of an 18 months for the completion of the first phase, which is actually a single lane. We have promised to work on the single lane and get it completed in 18 months.
“Now, we have decided to work on the entire project which is a four-lane road. But now, we should complete the entire project in 2022.”
The ground breaking of the project was done on June 17, 2017 by former governor Abiola Ajimobi and the first phase of the project was slated for completion within 18 months.
Governor Seyi Makinde had, last week Thursday, ordered the ENL Consortium to stop work on the project on the grounds that from 2017 to 2019, less than six percent of the project had been completed.
But the governor has since rescinded the order through a letter.
Jorge said the company received a letter from the state government last Thursday with a 90-day ultimatum for some expected progress to be made on the project. She promised that the expectation would be met, adding that the delay experienced by the project was predicated on the fact that the immediate past administration could not help in securing the Federal Government guarantee, requested by financiers that wanted to finance the project.
Jorge said the project had reached 10 percent completion and 26 of the 32 kilometres project had been cleared.
