By 
Bisi ABASS
Nigeria’s Federal Government said it will deliver in March 2023 section III, of the N73.875 billion Kano-Zaria Road, part of the North-West Roads under construction.
The Director, Highway Construction and Rehabilitation, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (FMWH), Mr Folorunsho Esan, said this during inspection of the project on Friday in Kano.
While at the inspection, Esan expressed satisfaction with the work of the contractors, adding that the project would be delivered according to schedule.
“The section III with a length of 137 kilometres was handed over to contractors on June 26, 2018 and work commenced on July 12, 2018 from Daka Tsalle.
“I’m so impressed with the level of work and even the quality too, because if you have not travelled up to this point, you will think the contractor is not working, so what I’ve seen so far today, I’m so impressed,” Esan said.
On the challenge of the shoulders of the roads being converted to car wash and parking lots, the director urged those carrying out these acts to desist from it.
He called on law enforcement agents to do their job by stopping such people so that the roads could be durable and live up to its expected life span.
Esan added that the length of road handed over and opened to traffic by contractors were right hand side carriageway Kano-bound 60.66 kilometres while the left hand side carriageway Zaria-bound was 64.80 kilometres.
On his part, the Project Manager of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, handlers of the project, Mr Finn Drosdowski appealed to stakeholders to be patient for best results.
“The challenges always come if you do construction work because you know we close one side of the road, and only the other side is opened for the public. So, I want to appeal to all stakeholders to bear with us for the inconvenience.
“I can promise like the director said, we will finish this road from Zaria to Kano in the first quarter of next year and then the traffic will be released then everybody can enjoy the much more wider road,” Drosdowski said.
The road was contracted at the cost of N73.875 billion.
The inspection is part of a two-day event which began from the 199.50 kilometre Kaduna-Pambeguwa-Jos road currently at 18 per cent completion.
Also inspected were the sections II and III, of the Kaduna-Zaria Road and Rehabilitation of 64.600 kilometres Zaria-Gusau-Sokoto-Birnin-Kebbi road, Funtua-Zaria Section.
Included in the inspection of the North-West Roads was the Kano Western Bye-pass involving a 26.6-kilometre dual-carriageway.
It starts from Naibawa kilometres 10 on the Kano-Kaduna road and ends at Dawanau village kilometres 15 on the Kano-Katsina road. The contract is an extension of dualisation of Kano-Maiduguri Road.
Mr Roy Hungushi, the Project Manger of Kano Western Bye-pass, said the work was in progress but appealed for an extension of the contract to 2024.
“Some of the challenges we face during construction include raining season, high cost of materials and blasting services and delay in SUSUK fund payment,” he said.
The contract sum which was reviewed upward stands at N22.7 billion and the contractor is Messrs Dantata and Sawoe Nig Ltd.
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