Federal government on Wednesday in continuation if efforts at fixing bad roads approved the rehabilitation of the roads linking Yakassai-Badume-Damagum-Makinzalin Kano, in favour of CCECC for N12.157 billion
Others include the rehabilitation of the Kaduna-Kanbegua-Jos Road, linking Kaduna and Plateau states, in favour of Setraco Nigeria Limited, for N38.701 billion
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, stated this while briefing the State House Correspondents after the virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council FEC, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, also disclosed that FEC approved contract for the expansion of the Apron at the Maiduguri Airport at the cost of N719,117,868.60
The contract was awarded to a company called Luvaslink Projects Limited. Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed who stood in for Sirika at the briefing, said the expansion of the Maiduguri Airport has become necessary because of the increased traffic at the airport.
“The Apron of an airport is actually that area where aircrafts manoeuvres are made, where they turn, where they park.
“Because of the increased traffic, that apron has to be expanded to avoid accidents.
The second contract was awarded to Zenith General Insurance Company and 19 other insurance companies to insure assets, such as terminal buildings in 22 airports belonging to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), at the cost of N390,550,687.45.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Mohammed Bello, said FEC also approved augmentation for contracts to open up rural areas in the FCT, which are predominantly agricultural areas.
The Council approved the revised estimated total cost/augmentation of the contract for the construction of Yaba-Kpahe Road, in Kwali/Abaji area council in the Federal Capital Territory, at the sum of N431,640,286.
“As you know, that is an area that is by River Gurara, which is a very important water body crossing the FCT. It is a very important agricultural area and this particular project, we hope when completed is going to enhanced the economic development of that area, food security in the FCT and bring about security and peace”
The contract was awarded to Messrs COAN (W.A) Ltd at the sum of N431,640,286 at the completion period of 12 months. The contract sum increased from N914,189,200 to N1,345,829,486.
Council also approved the revised estimated total cost/augmentation and change in scope of the contract for the construction of one service carriageway of inner northern expressway from Rind Road III to Rind Road IV – Abuja industrial Park.
“It is supposed to link the road to the rest of the road systems in the territory. As you know, industrialization is one of the key objectives of this administration and by extension all the multiplier effects that normally societies will get when they industrialize.
It is a very important project which we will try as much as possible to fund so that we can see completion within 24 months.
The contract is awarded to Messrs Salini Nigeria Ltd at the cost of N7,302,585,139.
According to the FCT Minister, the contract sum also increased from N7,179,322,294 to N14,481,907,414.
The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Clement Agba, said the Federal Executive Council also approved the ratification of the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy II, which is an update to the maiden of the Nigerian Road Safety Strategy I that was from 2014-2018.
The NRSS II seeks to improve on the achieve the of the first edition by further reducing road accidents and fatalities and instituting basis for sustainable road traffic crashes abs fatalities reduction.
It also looked at the current road safety situation, articulates the desired road safety situation, design implementation of initiatives and programmes.
According to the Minister, in” putting together the revised document, the NRSS I performance was assessed, benchmarking were done with other regions of Africa and the world in terms of road safety statistics abs road safety strategies before the documentation was put together and costed”
This, he said, has however been taken through the technical working group for review and the national economic council.
“So what FEC did today was to ratify the decision of the national economic council on NRSS II.
“There are four basic differences between NRSS I and NRSS II. One is the goal setting. For NRSS I, the reduction in road traffic crashes was to be by 35 percent by end of the year 2018, this has been pushed further and reduced to 50 percent by the year 2030.
” In NRSS I there was just one oversight advisory council which was at federal level, the national road safety advisory council.
“NRSS II has now set up state roads safety advisory councils in addition to the national road safety advisory council.
Apart from the strategic activities defined in the pillars in NRSS I, NRSS II now includes global framework plan of action.
The documents that have been rephrased have now increased from four to about nine.
He explained that the pillars upon which this strategy is based are road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer road users which is very paramount, more important than the road conditions, safer vehicles and then the post crash care.
