The Commissioner for Works in Imo state, Ichie Best Mbanaso, has assured the people that the first motorable flyover in Owerri, the state capital, would be made operational by December, this year.
Mbanaso gave the assurance yesterday while inspecting the site of the project along Assumpta Avenue, about 100 kilometres away from the popular Warehouse junction.
He made it clear that the flyover projects embarked upon by the immediate past regime in the state were no longer necessary as the traffic congestion which they caused had been cleared to make way for free flow of traffic, adding that he did the magic within 48 hours of his swearing-in as Commissioner for Works.
He said: “It has been discovered that the only spot that needs flyover in Owerri is this Assumpta Avenue-Warehouse spot. So, the on-going flyover will stretch from Onitsha Road to Dee Sam Mbakwe Road people going to Aba from Onitsha and vice versa will no longer have any business with the city of Owerri. This will help in no small way to decongest the city.”
On the compensation paid to the tenants of a house located at the spot through which the flyover would pass, Mbanaso said the 15 tenants had been paid the sum of N750, 000, the amount which was more than their one year rent as agreed with the governor, while the owner of the house had been promised a plot of land in any choice area in the state.
Mbanaso, who was adjudged the best mayor of the three zones in the state and later best commissioner while he was in charge of the Ministry of Commerce an Industry last year, assured that he would do everything to actualise the flyover project for his name to be written in gold.
“For me, it was all about action and vision for my people,” he said.
