FG aproves N185b for dualization of Calabar-Itu road

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the total sum of one hundred and eighty-five billion nairas, N185b for the Construction as well as dualization of the Calabar-Itu Highway.

This was disclosed by the Senior Special Assistant to President Mohammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, after inspecting the ongoing construction work on the road from Itu in Akwa Ibom state to Odukpani council area in Cross River state on Tuesday.

Calabar-Itu road is a federal link road connecting Akwa Ibom to Cross River State as well as States in the northern corridor. The entire stretch of the road has been in a deplorable state for a very long time without attention from successive governments, thereby, subjecting commuters to severe suffering and risk aside economic losses.

Enang explained that the first phase of the contract was awarded to Julius Berger to the tune of N54 billion which started construction in Odukpani and Ibiono Ibom axis of the highway in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states until the holiday season.

The president’s Aide attributed the delay in the construction of the road to lack of funds, assuring the people that the project would be completed with dualized carriage by April 2023 since the funds have been made available, and urged the people to be patient and cooperate with the contractors handling the project.

“We have been having problems getting funding for the road, but Mr. President has asked me to assure you that we raised money from the tax credit window from federal inland revenue service to the NNPC to fund critical infrastructure mainly road.

“Out of the over N600billion raised from NNPC as a tax credit, a great part that is N185B has been dedicated to this road. The road was awarded in three tranches. The first money that was available was N54b and was for Julius Berger, N52b to CCECC, and the last N79b to SAMATECH engineering.

“This road was designed for dualization since 1972 and only one lane of the four lanes was constructed believing that others would be constructed since then. Thank God, President Mohammadu Buhari has started constructing other lanes with four bridges and he has promised to complete it within the time frame.

He commended SERMATECH Engineering for being on-site and working tirelessly to meet the target and for making the road passable during the yuletide but regretted that Julius Berger failed to report to the site with the excuse that they must observe their holiday even as he enjoined other companies to borrow a leaf from SERMATECH in offering selfless service.

Speaking with journalists, the SERMATECH representative on-site, Mr. Joseph Upata, said the company has reviewed the time frame of the completion of the project from three years to two, saying that their own part of the road shall be completed by April 2023. He said that SERMATECH has four different teams working on the road to achieve the desired target and complete the dualization even before the contract time.

“Since the fund for dualization of this road has been set aside, we have been mobilized to site and we are working from four different directions to meet and surpass our contract time. We have experts that will handle the bridges and we have mapped out plans to ensure that there will be a free flow of traffic while construction is going on.

“Let me tell you that to ensure cordial relationships with the communities, we have employed 100 people from this area to work with us. We have good relationships with the communities, so there will be no disturbances to slow down the job.

On the progress recorded he said, “we have cleared 7kms of the road, we have done full earthworks. There are four major bridges and several culverts and we have divided ourselves into four teams, another two teams that specialized in the building of bridges are coming next week to make the work faster”.

The village head of Ikot Ebiya, Oku Iboku in Akwa Ibom State, Eteidung Ikot Idem thanked the Federal government for coming to their aid. He commended President Buhari and his Aide for the intervention and urged them not to abandon the project even as he encouraged them to keep to their words of dualizing the road.