Umahi commends work progress on Lagos-Calabar Highway

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has commended work progress on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project.

The minister described the project as a signature of excellence and innovation in road infrastructure development by the Renewed Hope administration of the president of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Umahi made this commendation in a statement signed by the special adviser on media to the minister, Orji Orji, recently.

He said, “We’re going to plant trees, and of course, we are going to also have some lay bays. We can decide every five kilometres we have a lay bay where we connect all our CCTV cameras.  And then we have vehicles and the security within the cabin there, so that the response time will be like 10 minutes. I’m sure that you’ve witnessed what we did at Third Mainland Bridge. That’s what we intend to replicate in all our highways.

“And so, the entire stretch of 750 kilometres to Calabar will be under CCTV, powered by solar. And then every five kilometres, or 10 or 15, as we may agree, we will have a portal cabin where we have security posts, no blocking of the roads, we have a viewing centre, and then you view the entire stretch left and right.

“We will agree on the number of kilometres, depending on the capacity of the cameras.”

On the imperative of the contract review, he said, “The service lane was never envisaged; the CCTV camera was never envisaged. There was no single item of work, like we’re having in all the projects, from the removal of topsoil, not to talk of the removal of debris.”

Umahi, however, praised the vision of Mr. President in initiating legacy projects that would connect the critical economic corridors and boost the transportation ecosystem in the six geopolitical zones.

He said, “Work is progressing on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. We have the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway. Work is seriously in progress on the project. The first 120 km of work is going on in Sokoto. It has been procured. And work is going on by Hitech, using concrete. And then, you have the Kebbi section, 250 km. Work is also going on there.

“We believe strongly that we’ll be able to have about 20 km in both sections to commission by May 29th. In section one of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway in the South-West, we are very sure that we’ll commission the first 20 km in section one and 10 km in section two.”

He commended the intervention of Mr. President in the area of funding of the projects despite his interventions in other critical priority sectors of the economy.

“The president has given very serious attention to road infrastructure. Don’t forget that this Coastal Highway and, of course, the four Legacy Projects all have the train track incorporated. The construction of the train track for this section is going to take off in 2025. So this is what we are doing. And we believe strongly that the President is going to give the nation of Nigeria the road infrastructure that they have been yearning for.”