Delta Government Embarks On Tour Of State, Federal Road Projects
In a bid to furnish Deltans with its activities especially as it regards infrastructural development, the Delta State government took members of the press on a first hand assessment of road projects across the state.
The state government also disclosed that aside roads within the state, it was also intervening in some federal roads in the state to ameliorate the difficulties road users particularly Deltans faces.
Speaking with journalists at the old Lagos-Asaba expressway at the end of the tour, the Commissioner for Works, Chief James Augoye, flanked by his Information counterpart, Mr Patrick Ukah, said, “the state took over the federal road in 2009 to get it expanded from the 7.3m to dual carriage way”, disclosing that the last visit, the contractor was doing the piling on the bridge.
The Works Commissioner who express satisfaction over the level of work done said, “Today, the bridge is almost completed, we are at the base now. There is a directive from the Federal Ministry of transport that they intend doing a test running on the rail by the end of November. That is why you can see us working day and night to ensure that we meet with the target of completing the bridge by November ending”.
He assured Deltans that once the bridge has been completed by the contractor, the work would be handed over to the state in January 2018, pointing out that the length of the road is measured at 9.42km.
He used the opportunity to inform Deltans that the Direct Labour Agency (DLA) has started intervening on some bad spots by the Mobile Barrack gate along Ogwashi-Uku road and would move to the Ogwashi-Uku/Kwale road, “all those bad spots will be taken care of by DLA”, he assured.
On what the state has spent on federal roads, Augoye said, “well we have spent so much. We have a list which we have also given to the federal ministry of Works. I can’t give you the actual amount, it is something we compiled recently and sent to the office of the federal ministry of Works and they are working on it”.
He disclosed that the federal government has assured that it would reimburse the state government, “and we are waiting for their response”.
According to him, the state government decided to intervene on federal roads as they are plied by Deltans and others who pass through the state, “and so they are very useful to us and we can’t just allow them to go completely destroyed. It is our responsibilities to get them maintained and ensure reimbursement from the federal government”.
He disclosed that the Uromi Junction axis of Agbor has been re-awarded by the federal ministry of Works, saying that work has also started from the Uromi end, “and between now and the end of this month, no doubt they will get to the Uromi Junction”.
Also speaking, the Commissioner of Information, Ukah, said the assessment would be carried out in the three senatorial districts of the state, “it is going to be a regular thing that we will be doing”.
Earlier, the tour started from the Cable-Point dualization of the Nnebisi road in Asaba, where the Commissioner said has been completed and is awaiting commissioning before leaving for Nsukwa-Ejeme-Aniogor road which covers Ndokwa West, Ukwuani, Ika North East and Ika South councils where he said the work on the road was a regularization of portholes on the degraded road.
He said the contractor has done 14 km out of the 24 km road as they would be mobilized to site by next week to continue with the 10 km that is left before leaving for Ndemili to Owa-Alidinma.
The government officials also visited the phase I of the Ute-Ukpo/Owa-Alero 4.2 km road which was awarded in December 2016 to Chiono global ventures which is awaiting commissioning, disclosing that the phase II was awarded two weeks ago to link the Alero junction before moving to Owa-Ekei dualization with 5.4 km distance awarded to CCECC in 2016, before ending at the old Lagos-Asaba road to see the extent of work done by the contractor.
Ukah said the state was making deliberate efforts to link the rural areas to the urban areas, “so that they can be able to bring out their farm produce to the urban centres where they can actually have the gains of getting it to such ventures. A lot have been done, we have given you the statistics of 59 road projects already completed in the state and we have about 79 road projects that are ongoing, these are state owed projects spread across the three senatorial districts. What you have also seen is some of the federal roads that we are also intervening. There is a complete balance and we lay a lot of emphasize to making life easy for our people”.