The Federal Government has assured that the first 47 kilometres of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, currently under construction, will be ready by May 2025.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, gave the assurance while inspecting an evacuated but now refilled section of the road that was once a dump site.
Umahi said that the construction company was reliable and would achieve one kilometre of concrete pavement in a day; hence, the stipulated duration of the project would still be attained.
According to him, squatters along the site corridors will soon be dislodged for failure to comply voluntarily.
“I am very happy with the work and people have been asking me that we say this 47-kilometre will be commissioned by May 29, and they are counting months for me, and they are counting months for Hitech. But I have no fear about what Hitech is doing. First, it is good quality work; the most difficult aspect of this is the settlement of the sand,” he said.
Earlier, the Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mrs Olukorede Kesha, explained that the evacuation of the refuse dumpsite had slowed down the construction work. She, however, assured that the refuse evacuation would not affect the duration of the project significantly.
“This place where we are standing, we encountered a huge deposit of refuse here; as you can see here, the contractor was asked to excavate and evacuate it. In some places, we had as deep as five to six meters of refuse, and the place where we are standing now was just at the formation level, so we are still going to fill on top of this,” Kesha said.
The 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project will pass through the coastal states of Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom.
At four billion naira per kilometre, the coastal road will be constructed at a cost of N15 trillion.