Africa-Press – Nigeria. The Independent Media and Policy Initiative, IMPI, has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar sparked controversy over the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project to discredit it.
The group, in a statement issued Monday by Chairman Niyi Akinsiju, said there is enough proof to support the Federal Government’s choice of HiTECH to construct the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
It said aside from successfully handling the Bar Beach Shoreline protection, Hitech also has a history of constructing coastal highways with reinforced concrete outside of Nigeria.
The policy group noted that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road is designed to be 10 lanes with a total pavement of 59.2 metres with a 100-metre corridor.
It stressed that of this corridor, there will be five lanes on the right and five lanes on the left, with a 25-metre train track.
The group pointed out that the Federal Government deserves commendation for reducing the cost of the project to N4.329bn per km from the N8.52bn/km in the initial design for a four-lane Lagos-Calabar highway by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
It added: “Our study of the situation showed that all the claims by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who sparked the controversy were off the mark and targeted at discrediting the project.”
“We note that there is no unified standard pricing template for the cost of building a kilometre of road anywhere in the world.
“The realities of road building have much to do with a number of variables: location, terrain, type of construction, number of lanes, lane width, surface durability, and the number of bridges, to name a few.
“Yet, for the purpose of engagement, we reviewed some cost estimates in some other countries to establish the context of fraud or otherwise that Waziri Abubakar is trying to throw up.”
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