Contrary to earlier assurance given by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi that the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway will be delivered by year end and the lawmakers’ permutation that works on ground points to end of 2019, the contractor handing the project has given fresh delivery date of 2021.
The Minister had at several occasions during his routine working visits told Nigerians that the project will be completed by December this year and later gave another date of next year.
But during a recent visit by Senators led by Senator Gbenga Ashafa representing Lagos East as part of their oversight function, they decried slow pace of jobs and made it clear that the given date of delivery cannot be possible.
However, the contractor handling the scheme, Julius Berger, has said that even the ongoing Sagamu-Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project will be completed by 2021.
The Operations Manager, Julius Berger, Thamm Olaf, told the Senate Committee on Works, led by its Chairman, Kabiru Gaya, weekend, that the project, which was to be completed in 2017, was stalled due to paucity of funds and the recent expansion.
Accordingly, the lawmakers, who were on an oversight visit to road projects in Lagos, expressed sadness about the slow pace of the work, despite the efforts and funds that had been put into it.
Gaya averred that the Federal Government had spent a lot of money on the road and others across the country and had moved cost of road infrastructure from N500bn to 600bn in the 2019 budget to accommodate more road construction.
