Dangote To Extend Reconstruction Of Apapa Road To Ojota Toll Gate

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, the minister of power, works and housing, disclosed that the Dangote Group has decided to extend the construction of Apapa Wharf road to terminate at the Lagos Toll Gate.

The minister made this known while speaking at the Lafarge Road Construction Summit in Lagos on Friday.

According to the minister, the group decided to take up the additional responsibility of extending the road in other to develop a single solution to the port evacuation problem.

“You’ll recall that we had an agreement with the Dangote Group to rehabilitate and reconstruct the Apapa Wharf road using cement,” Fashola said.

“They have since come back to say ‘we want to take the entire road network from Apapa, Liverpool, all through to Marine beach to Mile 2 to Oshodi to Oworonshoki and to the Toll Gate, a stretch of 35 kilometre so that we develop one solution to the port evacuation problem’.

In June, the federal government signed a N4.34 billion memorandum of understanding on the road to be paid for by Flour Mills of Nigeria, AG Dangote Construction Company Ltd and the Nigerian Ports Authority.

But Fashola said afterwards; “We held a meeting on Tuesday, we have agreed that this is the route they will take and they have written back to confirm their commitment and what is left is for the design consultant to complete the design so that we then use that to determine the cost and we use this solution to solve that road network using concrete.”

On Wednesday, the minister also signed a tripartite agreement with Julius Berger and the Nigerian LNG for  the construction of the Bonny-Bodo road with Bridges across the Opobo Channel Routes 430 in Rivers State.

The project, budgeted to cost N120 billion is expected to completed in 2019.