The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has admitted that the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has no single engineering design protecting all the route, greater than two years after building started in March 2024.
Umahi made the disclosure throughout a one-hour-30-minute interview on Arise Television monitored by our correspondent on Friday, explaining that the challenge was being designed and costed part by part.
The admission comes amid persistent questions over the freeway’s complete value, building course of, environmental approvals and the federal authorities’s capability to finish the challenge, which is considered one of President Bola Tinubu’s flagship infrastructure initiatives.
“There is no single design of any road project that came out, you know, in reality, at the end of the project, the way it was designed,” Umahi mentioned.
Asked straight whether or not an engineering design lined all the freeway, the minister replied, “So these are the procedures. So there is no one single design that the 750 kilometres of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is holding. There’s no one single design.”
Umahi mentioned the freeway had been conceived way back to 1955, whereas the idea was gazetted in 2006. However, he maintained that he had not discovered an entire engineering design, subsoil investigation or different detailed technical paperwork protecting all the route within the ministry’s archives.
According to him, engineering designs are developed for particular person sections after environmental assessments and soil investigations set up the route, terrain and technical necessities.
He mentioned the procurement association accredited by the Federal Executive Council required the challenge to be procured part by part, arguing that variations in terrain, bridges and engineering necessities made it inappropriate to calculate the general value by multiplying an estimated common value by 750 kilometres.
“Who fixed this N15tn that people are just, you know, brandishing everywhere? Who fixed it? And let me also clarify that nobody has the right to do an average cost and multiply by 750,” he mentioned.
The absence of a single engineering design and a complete challenge value raises questions on how the federal government intends to ascertain the freeway’s complete monetary dedication, assess its general worth and talk its eventual value to Nigerians.
Defending the price of the primary part, Umahi mentioned a normal two-lane carriageway would value about $5.5 million (N7.3 billion) per kilometre, based mostly on his comparability with a coastal freeway challenge in neighbouring Benin Republic.
He referred to a 47-kilometre part of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and a 47.47-kilometre coastal highway in Benin Republic, which he mentioned value N1.06 trillion.
The minister cited a value of about N7.5 billion per kilometre for a three-carriageway configuration earlier than adjusting the estimate to mirror a normal two-lane carriageway. He put the adjusted value at roughly $5.5 million per kilometre, utilizing an trade price of N1,330 to the greenback.
He mentioned variations in highway configurations and challenge specs should be thought of earlier than evaluating the prices of the 2 initiatives.
On environmental approvals, Umahi confirmed that building started after the ministry obtained a provisional Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) certificates.
“Every project has provisional ESIA,” he mentioned, including that environmental points, resettlement and different related programmes had been being thought of throughout implementation.
He defined {that a} closing certificates would observe because the challenge progressed and excellent necessities had been addressed. He additionally maintained that environmental assessments had been being performed part by part quite than by a single evaluation protecting all the route.
Umahi mentioned the ministry had obtained closing environmental approval for the primary 47-kilometre part.
The freeway has attracted criticism over its value, route and environmental implications since building started. The federal authorities has defended it as a serious transport hall meant to enhance connectivity alongside Nigeria’s shoreline.
Umahi additionally clarified his remarks about an extra 400 kilometres linked to the challenge, following questions on whether or not President Tinubu had ordered a diversion from the unique route.
He mentioned the extra stretch concerned connecting the coastal freeway to the present East-West Road by Edo State, quite than abandoning the unique alignment.
“The alignment is intact,” he mentioned, insisting that Edo remained a part of the route, which traverses Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.
The minister acknowledged that describing the connection as a diversion was inaccurate, explaining that the plan was to offer a spur linking the coastal freeway to the East-West Road.
“It’s to also put a spur. The word divert, if I used that then it’s a slip of the tongue. We are talking about the connection of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, we are connecting it also to have a spur on the East-West Road,” Umahi mentioned.
He added that the connection would supply an alternate route and help the reconstruction of the East-West Road, components of which he mentioned had deteriorated and fallen beneath flood ranges.
Umahi mentioned design work on the connection was ongoing, stressing that it shouldn’t be confused with the unique 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
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