Lagos State Government has said it has terminated the earlier contract with investors for the construction of proposed N844 billion fourth mainland bridge projects.
This was disclosed Monday by the Commissioner for Waterfront and Infrastructure Development, Engr. Adebowale Akinsanya, while addressing journalists in Alausa.
He said government is presently considering various proposals from foreign investors such as United States of America, Britain, in order to accelerate commencement of the project.
Akinsanya said the government had to dump the former contractors which include Africa financial corporation, AFC and other investors, due to continued delay in the commencement of multi billion naira project.
Other investors dumped by the Government a year after signing Memorandum of Understanding, MOU for the 38 kilometer bridge and road project includes; Visible Assets Limited and Access Bank Plc.
According to him, “the reason why we terminated the contract of former investors was mainly due to slow pace of work. We are now looking at many investors, though, interest is very high. We have such investors from South Korea, Europe, and America, among few others. What we are doing now is vetting the proposals we don’t want to waste any further time. So works are in top progress on the 4th Mainland Bridge.”
The commissioner assured residents that the state government would ensure that appropriate investors would be named soon for the project considering its importance.
Also, permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Temidayo Erinle, who spoke on the planed airport road project said, “We are yet to get Federal Government’s approval on the Airport road project. We want to assure residents that whenever there is approval you will see engineers move to site.
“Though, we are still collaborating with FG to get things resolved. The road is not in good condition; hence, we need to move fast. Also Apapa Road, same issue as Airport Road, it’s a federal road, we are collaborating with FG on it too.”
Erinle added that efforts by Ambode administration’s to carry out a total reconstruction of the International Airport Road from Oshodi as at press time was yet to be approved by the Federal Ministry of Works.
According to him, the state government, presently, has a design for the reconstruction of the road as well as the funds to embark on the project but “the Federal Government is yet to grant approval. Though, we are still talking on it.
“On the proposed 188 roads, we have received over 1,000 proposals from contractors. We are currently in a vetting stage. We are studying the technical aspect because it’s very important. We are looking at the application. Not only the costs are we considering, we have to look at the background, years of experience, expertise too. We are paying more attention to technical aspect.”
Erile added that in maintaining the existing roads in the state, the Public Works Corporation, LSPWC, worked on 807 roads within the state, while it delivered over 532 roads and agency currently working on over 275 other roads.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.
