SURE-P to spend N12.5bn on Abuja-Lokoja road rehabilitation

by nan

Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, retired Lt.-Gen. Martin Luther-Agwai, says the programme would spend N12.5bn on the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion of the Abuja-Lokoja road in 2014.

He made the disclosure after the inspection of ongoing rehabilitation and expansion of the Abuja-Abaji-Lokoja road. 

Luther-Agwai said SURE-P had intervened to ensure the speedy completion of the project which had been awarded sometime in 2006.

He added that sections one and two of the project would be linked before the end of December, saying they stretched from Zuba to Sheda and Sheda to Abaji.  

“Motorists will have an uninterrupted drive of 100km stretching towards Lokoja from Abuja.

“We have seen that the contractor handling the project has done a good job,” the SURE-P chairman said.

He called on the civil engineers handling various road designs in the country to consider the disabled and the vulnerable in the construction of pedestrian bridges.   

Receiving the SURE-P Chairman, Mr Yusuf Jibril, the contractor’s representative, said the section one contract had been awarded to Dantata and Sawoe company at a cost of over N11 billion.

He further told Luther-Agwai that the project was later reviewed upward to over N28.7 billion.

Jibril said the work had reached 77.29 per cent completion, adding that the project was approximately 42 km of the single carriageway.

“Zuba-Abaji is 30 km while it is 12 km from Giri Village Junction to Airport Junction.

“The project includes three major highway interchanges and three river bridges,’’ he said.

Jibril said the initial date of completion was Feb. 2, 2007 but it was later extended to Sept. 8, 2014.