LAGOS – The Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, has reaffirmed that the construction of Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project will gulp about N2.8 trillion.
Umahi, disclosed this during a tour of the ongoing project at the weekend
The minister’s revelation, showed that the infrastructural project which is 700 kilometres will consume N4 .39 billion per kilometre.
Umahi, also debunked claims that the project did not follow the due procurement process.
He added that the project was awarded on a counter-funding basis and not on a Public-Private Partnership as claimed.
According to him, “There are seven questions the respectable former Vice President is asking. Of these seven questions, I have answered with 14 answers. On the cost of the project, a kilometre of the road will cost N4.39 billion. If this is applied to the 700 kilometres, we are talking of about N2.8 trillion.
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“The procurement for this project is most prudent. With the standard of work that will be done on this coast road, ocean surge is conquered When building a coastal road, use of concrete is most appropriate than asphalt or any construction model.
“The major fact about this Lagos-Calabar coastal highway is that it will bring foreign investments to many states and the country as a whole.”
He also wondered why the Tinubu administration released N1.06 trillion for the pilot phase, or six per cent of the project, which starts at Eko Atlantic and is expected to terminate at the Lekki Deep Sea.
“So you have to now ask what was there to be constructed. And what was there to be constructed is the only available design from NDDC. They had designed the entire 700 km but we are not following exactly that pattern or right of way. We have a different modification. The original design had two carriageways on each side of the road with four lanes.
“And in the middle, they did not provide for the train track. It’s just going to be a water-collecting basin. But, 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 has 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.” he said.
He continued: “And so when you run the figures, you now find out that under his calculation, it is giving you about over N19bn 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 N11.55 billion.
“Whereas what we are doing, if you divide it, you get N5.167bn, and so when you now divide using our N1.067 trillion, you get about N4 billion per kilometre. If you go back to what he has quoted, you will get over N8 billion.
