FG Revises Contract Cost Of The Enugu-Onitsha Expressway Project

The FG has approved a memo for the revision of the contract cost for a 22km section of the 100km Enugu-Onitsha highway.

The Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has said that the Federal Executive Council (FEC), has approved a memo for the revision of the contract cost for a 22km section of the 100km Enugu-Onitsha highway.

The revised section of the road which is under contract to Niger Construction Company had a budgetary increase of N8.649 billion.

This disclosure was made by Fashola while addressing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

Fashola in his statement said that the variation was to take care of the payment for change of pavement surface, wearing cost to increase the thickness, utilize modified bitumen and also strengthen the shoulders and some bridge works.

What the Minister of Works and Housing is saying

The Minister in his statement said, ‘’The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing presented one memorandum to the council and which was for the revised estimate total cost of our project on the Enugu-Onitsha highway and it was to add the sum of N8.649 billion to the section under contract to Niger Construction which is a 22 km section of the 100 km road so that we can expedite the conclusion of work there.

‘’The variation was to cater for the payment of change of pavement surface, the binder cost and the wearing cost to increase the thickness, to utilize modified bitumen and also to strengthen the shoulders and some bridge works. So the council approved this variation of N8.649 billion in favour of Niger Construction Company.’’

This would come as welcome relief to motorists plying that route, as the reconstruction and rehabilitation project which had commenced in 2009 has been marred by several setbacks and delays.

Hopefully, this will encourage contractors to the project to speed up work on the road.