Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State says the state government has so far spent ₦7.6 billion on constructing and equipping the ultra-modern motor park in the state.
Yahaya stated this while inspecting facilities at the park on Saturday.
He queried the contractor for working behind schedule saying that such would no longer be condoned by the state government as his administration is eager to ensure the utilisation of the project for the benefits of the people.
“We have invested ₦7.6 billion on this project and the contractor had been lagging behind and that would no longer be tolerated.
“We are eager to put the facility to use for the benefit of our people,” he said.
On the contractor’s pledge to deliver the project by September, Yahaya said “I will charge you if you don’t deliver by September ending because ₦7.6 billion is no small money.
“We are not owing you a kobo and so there is no reason why you shouldn’t deliver by that September,” he added.
The governor said that the state government had set up a committee to ensure seamless relocation of all existing parks in the metropolis, hence the need for the contractor to deliver by the September deadline.
He said that critical stakeholders in the transport sector in the state had given their supports as the project would be beneficial to them, create more jobs and make movement in the state easier.
According to him, the relocation of the Bauchi motor park was to give room for more developmental projects in the state, adding that a three arm zone would be cited at the location after its relocation.
“Once the motor parks are out, we shall see where we will utilise to take care of the interest of everyone as we are expanding and growing towards making Gombe a modern city,” he said.
On how the state government raised the ₦7.6 billion, Yahaya said the project was financed through a bond, adding that the government had commenced a post-dated payment and had been paying in installments.
He stated that the management of the motor park had been ceded to Gombe Revenue Optimisation Company Limited to work with the unions in the transport sector to recoup the money over time.
He said that the investment in the project is huge and expected to benefit the people of the state and impact positively on the economy.
Yahaya also inspected ongoing projects in the state capital which include the ongoing construction of the Sharia Court of Appeal, Bauchi Motor Park and some road projects in Gombe metropolis.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor had on Thursday set up a taskforce to facilitate the smooth transition of operations from three major motor parks to the ultra-modern park.
The three major motor parks to be relocated to the new park along Dukku Road when completed are Bauchi Motor Park, Dukku Motor Park and Dadin Kowa Motor Park.
The ultra modern motor park has the following facilities: road networks, 250 shops, clinic, hotel with 100 people capacity, fire service station, trailer park which can contain 2,500 trailers at a time, police outpost amongst others.
The project, awarded by Ibrahim Dankwambo’s administration since 2012 at the initial contract sum of 3.2 billion naira is said to have gulped almost 2.8 billion billion naira and attained 43 per cent completion status before being allegedly abandoned.