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David Umahi, the Minister of Works has disclosed that the construction of the Lagos-Calabar highway would cost ₦4bn per km.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had earlier criticised the project, alleging that the Federal Government planned to spend ₦8bn on each kilometre of the 700 km road project.
Atiku also raised questions on why President Bola Tinubu awarded the contract to his ally, Gilbert Chagoury’s Hitech without competitive bidding.
Reacting to this, Umahi in a statement on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, said Atiku lacked an understanding of figures, adding that he found the ex-VP's comment degrading.
Also, while appearing as a guest on the Television Continental on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, the minister dismissed Atiku's claim on the cost of the project.
He explained that the current design of the road under construction is different from its original design which according to him was eight lanes without train tracks.
“The coastal road we are constructing has a total of 10 lanes, you know, not only that it has a total of 10 lanes, it also have what we called shoulders. And the total shoulders can be put at about 23 metres. So when you put the total concrete pavement we are doing, it’s about 59 metres. When you put the total flexible pavement that he quoted it’s about 23 metres,” Umahi said.
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“And so when you run the figures, you now find out that under his calculation, it is giving you about over ₦19bn per kilometre. Now if you divide it by the 23 kilometres that they are doing, it is about 2.225 times a standard superhighway carriageway, which is ₦11.55bn. Whereas what we are doing, if you divide it, you get ₦5.167bn, So when you now divide using our 1.067, you get about ₦4bn/km.
“If you go back to what he has quoted, you will get over ₦8bn. So using concrete, which should be more expensive because of the kind of terrain we have, and using flexible pavement, which shouldn’t stand the coastal route, you will find out that our cost is ₦4bn instead of the ₦8bn claimed by the former vice president.”
The former Governor of Ebonyi State disclosed that Hitech Construction would fund the project under the Public-Private Partnership model.