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FG dumps 2nd Niger Bridge design
FG dumps 2nd Niger Bridge
design
LERE OJEDOKUN,
Abuja
GOVERNMENT
said yesterday that it has discarded the former engineering design of the
proposed Second Niger Bridge due to what it called design inadequacy. But it
approved contracts for various infrastructural projects totalling N625 million.
Works Minister, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe
who disclosed this to State House correspondents, said "an entirely new" design
had been drawn just as he revealed that four strategic bridges have been
earmarked for construction before the end of the second tenure of the
administration in 2007.
Among the approved projects was N245
million for the design of Loko-Oweto bridge which connects Nasarawa and Benue
states and to serve as a shorter route to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
Abuja, from the South-East.
Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its
weekly meeting also approved 1.8 million euros (N290 million) for the
installation of digital communication equipment at the Abuja-Shiroro power
transmission line and sub-stations, Ogunlewe said.
Another highlight of the meeting, chaired
by President Olusegun Obasanjo, was the approval of N90 million for contract
award on the rehabilitation and expansion of Ogbomoso water supply scheme.
Ogunlewe and his three other colleagues
briefed newsmen on the deliberations of the Council. They were Senator Liyel
Imoke (Power and Steel), Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu (Information and National
(Orientation) and Mr. Bashir Awotorebo (Minister of State for Water Resources).
The Works Minister, while stating that the
initial design of the Second Niger Bridge, put together by local experts, was
inadequate, stressed that government decided to replace it in line with the new
policy of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT).
"Yes, the design was completed, but it was
inadequate. The alignment was not what we wanted. So, we are doing realignment
now. The first bridge they designed had two lanes for railway system and that
has been discarded. We have drawn an entirely new one", he said.
Asked why the old design was considered
inadequate, he explained that under the B-O-T policy, a private investor would
be required to fund the project, hence the investor willing to construct the
Second Niger Bridge found it unrealistic to carry out the project with the two
railway lanes in the earlier design.
The minister said government had to
concede to the investor even as he noted that B-O-T would become operational as
soon as the National Assembly passed into law the Public-Private Partnership
Bill.
He further stated that as part of plans to
increase the inter-link of the South-East, South-South and Northern part of the
country, two other bridges would be constructed.
These are the Cross River bridge at Ikom
and Ibi bridge in Taraba State even as he explained that actual construction of
the Loko-Owete bridge would commence in 2005.
"But to ease the movement from South-East
to Abuja, the federal government today (yesterday) approved the design of the
bridge from Loko in Nasarawa State to Owete in Benue State. There are three
other bridges that we intend to design immediately. They are Cross River bridge
at Ikom, Ibi bridge in Taraba State and the Second River Niger bridge to link
Onitsha to Asaba", Senator Ogunlewe said.
The minister added that these projects
were aimed at increasing access to the FCT.
Overload of the existing Niger Bridge, a
major link between the East and other parts of the country, leading to
unbearable traffic congestion and dire economic implications informed
government’s decision to go for a second bridge.
The present bridge is 38 years old, having
been commissioned by the late Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in
January, 1966.
After several official bottlenecks,
including lack of political will by some of the past federal administrations to
go ahead with the Second Niger Bridge project, the Obasanjo’s government showed
resolved to get the project off the ground.
At the recent official commissioning of
the Mabushi, Abuja, head office of Italian firm, GIHO Construzioni Generali,
Senator Ogunleye said the firm had won the bridge project on a BOT basis.
"We have confidence in GIHO Construzioni Company that they
would complete the bridge project," he said.
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