From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government, at the weekend, promised to commission the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road project in May, this year.
Speaking during the inspection tour of the project, Director Highways Construction and Rehabilitation in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr Funso Adebiyi, said that the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road reconstruction project was awarded to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc on December 20, 2017, and the project commenced on May, 21, 2018, with the 36 months completion period.
According to him, the government is working round the clock to ensure that the project was delivered on time.
“We are satisfied with the quality of work going on and we are working to increase the pace of the work. You can see that work is going on simultaneously on all sections of both lanes of the dual carriage, 375km long road from Abuja-Kaduna- Kano,” he said
Adebiyi explained that the work was initially for rehabilitation but now full reconstruction work is ongoing. He appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the government in its commitment to deliver a qualitative work that would stand the test of time
He, however, appealed to the road users to bear the discomfort being experienced everyday as a result of blockages and diversions, pointing out that it was a necessary action in a construction work of such magnitude above all on such busy road with high traffic volume and axle load.
On the level of work done so far, Adebiyi said: “We have made a lot of progress. You can see that over 100 kilometers have been completed under section one to three (Abuja-Kano), 40km completed under section two (Kaduna-Zaria), and 70km completed under section three (Zaria-Kano)”
He pointed out that while some sections of the road are also at different levels of completion, palliative/remedial work are being carried out on the sections that are critically bad to facilitate ease of passage for motorists.
Reacting to the allegation of delayed work, Adebiyi said: “It is important that I correct the wrong impression by the people that work is not moving. We are working to meet up with the deadline and at the same time subjecting all the work to quality assurance test to deliver a good job”.
He assured Nigerians of the commitment of the government to complete the work.
“Government is desirous of completing this project. As such, it is not leaving anything to chance. That is why we are here regularly tracking the progress of work with a view to sorting out any identified challenges,”he noted.