Chinedum Treasure
Anambra State government on Wednesday attributed federal government’s huge investment in the state to the existing synergy between Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration and President Bola Tinubu-led government.
Commissioner for Works, Architect Okey Ezeobi who stated this in a press conference described as unprecedented level of the Federal Government’s presence in the Southeast, particularly Anambra.
He argued that Tinubu’s administration had done for the South-East what previous successive government had failed to accomplish.
The Commissioner listed the dualization of Oba to Okigwe, as well as Otuocha to Abaji as among the approved projects by the federal government, arguing that one could travel to Abuja from Awka and return same day when completed.
He also announced federal government approval of two pedestrians flyovers at Regina junction and Nnamdi Azikiwe University second gate for the students following Soludo’s passionate appeal.
He said, “There is ongoing construction of bypass from Nkwelle Ezunaka to the second Niger Bridge through Ogbunike, Ogidi and Obosi. Anambra side of the bypass is N180billion. We’ve never had this good before.
“The dualization of Oba to Okigwe, as well as Otuocha to Abaji is underway. That would be a game changer. If completed, it will take about 5-6 hours. What this simply means is that you can go to Abuja from Awka and return same day.
“The rehabilitation of first Niger bridge, I was reliably informed that the federal government had not attended to any project the same way it did to the project – day and night.
“All these are coming up as a result of synergy with Anambra. We’ve never had this level of infrastructure investment like this before under Tinubu even when we didn’t vote for him.
The Commissioner further dismissed as politically motivated certain online platforms alleging that State government awarded road contracts to incompetent contractors, resulting in poor quality roads across the state.
He described peddlers of such reports as political content creators, insisting that current government engaged renowned contractors capable of delivering quality infrastructure.
He however admitted failure of certain portions of the roads, blaming it on natural disasters, including unusual rainfall and underground water saturation.
He further identified indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drainages and deliberate blocking of drainages to harvest sand during rainy season as well as use of overloaded heavy-duty trucks as some of the factors contributing to road deterioration.
Ezeobi disclosed soon commencement of reconstruction of the affected roads by same contractors originally engaged for the projects at no additional cost to state government.
“The process will involve removing of failed asphalt, treating the underlying soil to withstand the effects of underground water and applying cement-stone stabilisation before relaying the asphalt.
He added, “As at today, we’ve awarded 908.044km of roads. We’ve fully asphalted 742km of roads. That’s unprecedented. If you add all the past three governors, they were not able to achieve 742km. We have the records in this Ministry.
“We’ve given out 143 roads contracts in the state. We’ll officially release the list. Of all the 742km asphalted roads, if you cut the failed portions, they are not up to 5km.
“That means the failure rates of our roads is about 3percent. Nobody has ever provided the kind of infrastructure the governor is doing at the moment. That’s why he should be celebrated wherever his name is mentioned,” he added.
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