Initial Works to Commence on Proposed Abuja-Lagos Superhighway in 2024
* Project gets N500m allocation
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
Preliminary works are set to begin on the proposed Abuja-Lagos Superhighway in 2024, with the project getting N500 million allocation in the proposed 2024 budget.
According to the proposed document, which is currently before the National Assembly, aside the highway marked ERGP12211937, the Lagos-Port Harcourt coastal highway will also get N500 million if the lawmakers do not adjust the sum.
In September, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, declared that the proposed 470 kilometres Abuja-Lagos Greenfield superhighway will be completed in 2027.
He added that it will last 100 years, adding that the highway that will pass through Lagos, Oyo, Kogi, Ekiti, Ogun, Niger, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will be built by a private sector consortium at no cost to the federal government.
Umahi stressed that superhighway will be tolled to enable the investors to recoup their investment, explaining that plans were underway to make the road a business and industrial corridor with hotels, factories, and housing estates, among others, on the route.
He also warned that if the consortium backed out unreasonably, it may have to pay a fine of $10 million.
Currently, Nigerians spend about 14 hours to get from Abuja to Lagos. However, the minister said that commuters will spend less than five hours on the superhighway when it becomes functional in the next four years.
On the whole, the federal ministry of works and the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) are expected to spend a combined total of N617.853 billion on capital projects from the N657.227 billion allocation . Also, the sum of N39.374 billion has been earmarked for recurrent expenses.
In other parts of Nigeria, road projects earmarked for construction or rehabilitation include Lafia road and the ‘dualisation’ of the 9th Mile from Enugu to Otukpo-Makurdi (Keffi Phase II), which got N94.828 billion.
A few of the other numerous road projects in the proposed budget include the N1.3 billion for the rehabilitation of Shagamu road in Lagos State as well as the planned rehabilitation of the access road to Apapa/Tin can Island Port, with an allocation of N143.5 million. Also, the Ibadan/Ife-Ilesha Road in Oyo State will gulp N2.2 billion.
The Kano-Maiduguri Road Section IV, Potiskum-Damaturu Road got an allocation of N2.1 billion, the ‘dualisation’ of Aba-Ikot Ekpene road in Abia/ Akwa Ibom States was allocated the sum of N1.410 billion, while the Ikot Ekpene Border-Aba-Owerri dualisation was allocated the sum of N1.01 billion.
If approved as proposed, the Odukpani Junction to Ikom-Ogoja Road in Cross River State will get an allocation of N1.1 billion, even as the rehabilitation of Odukpani-Itu-Ikot Ekpene Road, section I Odukpani-Itu Bridge head, both in Cross River State, got N1.5 billion.
The three sections of the Lokoja-Abuja road was allocated a combined total of N6 billion, while the Suleja-Minna road phase II in Niger State has an allocation of N500 million.
