From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu has awarded the contract for the rehabilitation and dualisation of the 60km section in the ongoing Benin-Lokoja Federal Highway rehabilitation project to BUA Cement PLC under the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Funding and Infrastructure and Development Refreshment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, the new arrangement became necessary because of the N897 billion road project. He said N122 billion was available from the Tax Credit Scheme, leaving a shortfall of N775 billion. Umahi stated this in Abuja during a meeting with the contractors handling the Benin- Lokoja Federal Highway and some stakeholders from the area.
He said that the ministry took some steps to review the texture of the pavement of the project to conform to the new innovation introduced by Renewed Hope administration to ensure best standards and durability.
The minister also disclosed that the contractors handling the project would be mobilised with about N9 billion each, which would be enough to complete a 6km stretch on their sections of the road.
Umahi said because of the complexity of the project and the socio-economic importance of the road, 10km would be excised from the existing contractors for BUA to be completed in six months. He said BUA must deploy the concrete technology on the 60km road with three contractors to handle the project to be able to meet the completion timeline.
He, however, informed the four contractors that they would need to sign an undertaken on the completion of the remaining sections of the road with adherence to the timetable.
“I first went through the road in September, and I was very satisfied that Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the ministry did very fantastic work. But all I did was to keep the project but review the texture of the pavement. And so, we allowed the existing carriageway to be on asphalt and then reviewed the new carriageway to be on concrete. So we went through the process of notifying the BPP, and from there, we went to Federal Executive Council (FEC), and graciously, FEC approved, and so we are in the process of signing an addendum to the contract,” he said.