President Goodluck Jonathan has officially inspected three major ongoing projects in Abuja yesterday to ascertain the level of completion.
The projects inspected are the Umar Musa Yar’Adua Way (Airport Road), Kubwa Outer Northern Expressway (ONEX) and the Abuja light rail, respectively.
The president, while assessing the Airport Road, said the contract was awarded in May 2009, added that there was a 30-kilometre of telecommunication on the road which has now changed the face of Abuja.
The president revealed that the road “is now at 98 percent completion. Urging the new government to ensure the completion because it is a gateway to the city of Abuja,” adding that the world would appreciate the road.
He said: “It is the plan of this government to replicate this in all the state capitals; I hope the new government will replicate it in other state capitals”” he said.
He commended the Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, for an effective supervision and the contractors for doing “these projects for the government.”
The minister, in his remarks, said the road had reduced traffic from City Centre, but pointed out that “there is still an outstanding bill of between N5 and N15 billion.”
While inspecting the light rail project at Idu, Director of Transport, FCT Transport Secretariat, Alex Usuma, revealed that the official date of completion of the rail project remains December 2015, and that the project “is already at 61 per cent completion.”
According to him, the administration is working on lot 1A and 3 at the moment because of financial constraints.
He said the starting point of the rail service would be the location where the NNPC mega station “is sited at the time.”
Blueprint
reports that all roads leading to the airport road: Area 1, Jabi, Airport Road, Kubwa expressway and AYA among other roads were blocked while the inspection lasted.
It was also gathered that the president witnessed the long queue of motorists at the NNPC filling station on the Kubwa expressway.