Abia to complete P/Harcourt road, others by 2022

The Abia State government says construction works on Port Harcourt and Ngwa roads, Obohia and the adjoining streets in Aba South will be completed before the end of 2022 in what is expected to bring relief to the residents of the areas.

Bob Ogu, the state commissioner for works, who gave the assurance while interacting with select media houses, including BusinessDay in Aba, said the project had been delayed due to paucity of funds and rain.

Ogu, who acknowledged the need to tackle the infrastructural deficit in Aba, said anybody who had lived in Aba before 2015, would acknowledge that virtually all inner roads in the city were in terrible condition. According to him, no single road in the city was motorable, end to end, before Governor Okezie Ikpeazu assumed office.

He, however, noted that the Ikpeazu-led administration has fixed about 90 percent of the roads within the Aba crown land.

“If you go to Ogbor-Hill now, one wing of Ogbor-Hill, that’s the left side of the Ikot-Ekpene road, this government has fixed the major roads in that area”, he said.

He stated that the state government plans to commission the all-important Ngwa road, before January 2022, while assuring that the perennially dilapidated Port Harcourt road would not be abandoned.

The commissioner pointed out that the relocation of electric poles on Port Harcourt road, which required the payment of certain fees, but now sorted out, also delayed work on the road. He also noted that the two ponds at Uratta and Umuagbai that ought to carry floodwater were filled to the bream, which he said had to be freed up before anything could go on.

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“The initial arrangement was to do an underground tunnel, which the World Bank is funding, through NEWMAP. To do that tunnel would take 30 months to complete, and NEWMAP has a two-year tenure which is 24 months.

About eight months have gone within this 24 months, which means we can’t finish this project within the remaining time, so we restructured the project.

“After June 30, 2022, there’ll be nothing like NEWMAP after that. This was why some people went on air to allege that the government has embezzled the money meant for that project.

“I tell you that it has to do with the tenure realignment and readjustment of the plan to make sure that water is moved out from Uratta and Umuagbai ponds”.

He promised that once the rain abate people would see massive works around Port Harcourt road, Obohia road, Ohanku and major parts of the Ama-Mmogho axis.

On the condition of fast fading Faulks road that was allowed for use two years ago, the commissioner explained that the issue of blocked drainage was responsible for the fast fading of the road.

He explained that the contractor horridly did the drains, earthworks, stone base and then asphalted to provide access on that corridor to receive the president, who was in Ariaria to commission an independent power plant there.

“With the level that road was, it could have lasted for a good number of years with small pockets of issues that could be cleaned up before doing the final wearing course.

He, however, accused residents, who dump refuse in drains as contributing to the failure of the road.

“When wastes are dumped inside drainages, it blocks the drains, and water finding its way would flood on the asphalted areas, thereby affecting the asphalt,” said Ogu.