The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved N47.5 billion for the completion of work on the Oyo-Ogbomoso highway in Oyo state.
Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the decision was taken in line with the current administration’s policy of completing abandoned projects across the country.
“The Ministry of Works and Housing presented two memoranda and those memoranda relate to commitment on policy directive to complete existing projects. The first one related to the Oyo-Ogbomoso highway, which is the 52-kilomete part of the Ilorin1-badan 145-kilometer highway. The remaining part is the Oyo to Ogbomosho part which is 52 kilometres.
“We needed to adjust some things in the scope of work, the thickness of the pavement from 500mm to 560mm to also change the asphalt to polymer-modified bitumen and also the shoulders from surface dressing to fully asphalted inside and outside shoulders.
“So, all these required changes in prices of N47.504 billion and this has increased the total contract to N105.041 billion. This was the revision that we presented which council approved. This road was awarded in 2010. As I said, sections 1 & 3 were completed. We are trying to complete section 2 which we also inherited,” he said.
The minister said the council also approved N9.3 billion as a variation for the completion of Loko-Oweto bridge linking Benue and Nassarawa states.
“The second similar project which we are trying to complete is the Lokko-Oweto Bridge. That is the bridge across the River Benue that links Nasarawa and Benue states and provides a major time saving detour, about four hours, for people trying to come from the south-south to Benue, through to Nasarawa to Abuja.
“That project was awarded in 2011 and it was awarded in three different sections – one section, the road to Benue to Oweto, was awarded to one contractor, we have completed that road; the bridge was awarded to another contractor, the bridge is essentially finished now, it’s open to traffic and then, Loko to Nasarawa, 74 kilometres was awarded to another contractor. We are trying to sort out that problem and we will come back to it.
“So, the approval given today was a N9.348 billion variation to complete the bridge component or remaining work on the bridge. If you go there now, it’s already opened to traffic,” he said.
