The federal government has approved N47bn for three road projects in the country.
This was disclosed by the minister of power, works and housing ,Babatunde Fashola after the federal executive council meeting presided over by vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential Villa.
He gave the breakdown of the road projects to include Baban Lamba-Sharam Road in Plateau state at the cost of 19.2bn, lagos- ota- Abeokuta road for 22bn and Enugu – Porthacourt road ,the aba section for 6.309bn.
According to him “The Ministry of Power, Works and Housing got approval for three memos.One was for Baban Lamba-Sharam Road in Plateau state for the contraction of 44.625 kilometers for N19.392 billion. The second was for Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Road 81 kilometers.
“That road was first awarded in year 2000 and it has since been left uncompleted because they want no budgetary provisions for it. This administration in trying to move this contractor to site stated the revision of the rate.
” So the revised rate were brought to council today and a revision of N22 billion was approved for the 81 kilometers road, bringing the total contract price to N56.701 billion.
“The third approval was for the section four of the Enugu Port Harcourt Road, the part between Abia and Port Harcourt, particularly in Port Harcourt that has been problematic and has failed severally.
“We have a contractor there but we needed to change the design because of the storm water drainage needs and the high water tables there so that the road does not fail.
So that requires a revision of the scope of work to include retaining sidelanes and also drainage facilities in the sum of N6.309 billion.
During his briefing the minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu said the council approved the establishment of the Nigerian Army University in Biu, Borno State.
On his part, minister of water resources, Suleiman Adamu said his ministry presented a policy memo highlighting the crisis facing water and sanitization in the country and the need for government to take action.
According to him, his ministry highlighted the fact that urbane water supply is regressing, access to improve sanitation has also decreased over time that they have not be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals .
He lamented that works services in the rural areas are unsustainable, and spending on water sector has declined by .7% to .72% of the GDP in 2010.
He said “We submitted a memo to council to approve an action plan on how to address these issues. We had three prayers for the council to approve the action plan: to declare a state of emergency on water and sanitation sector; to approve the establishment of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Fund for the country.
“This fund will be one that federal, states and international donors can put in money so that we can begin to address the crisis water and sanitation sector in the country.
“We also requested that henceforth the budget for water and sanitation in the country to be significantly increased so that we will be able to face these challenges. Council accepted our prayers and we will move on.
Ministry of interior ,Abdulrahman Dambazau said the council approved contract for the completion of two faculty buildings and Cadet Mess and Cafeteria for Police Academy in Kano.
He explained that the reason being that there is minimum requirement to be met by the academy before accreditation of programmes.
“In May 2010, a memo was submitted for the approval of a draft bill when it was upgraded to a decree awarding institutions. So the total amount of the contract is about l N234 million. Once it is completed, we will invite the NUJ to have a look at some of the programmes that are yet to be accredited,” he said.
