FG, Stakeholders meet over Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

The Federal Government held a meeting yesterday with stakeholders of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway project concessioned to Bi-Courtney.

The stakeholders at the meeting included the Lagos, Oyo and Ogun state governments represented by senior government officials. Others included Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUOENG), Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, and Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

Mr. Emeka Nwankwo, the deputy director of Public Partnership in the Presidency called on the governments of the southern states to cooperate with Bi-courtney and the Federal Government in getting the project off the ground.

Nwankwo also appealed to the stakeholders to allow for an extension for the Right of Way for the road project from 90 metres to 120 metres. This proposal met with stiff opposition from the state governments as they said that the attendant consequences would be too immense to consider the extension.

Top on their list of why te extension should be shelved were that it would disrupt the state governments’ master plan for the area since the masterplan was based on the earlier blueprints for the project.

Also they complained that the extension would displace many residents and businesses in the affected areas and lead to a huge compensation bill.

Bi-courtney was asked to provide the design of the road to the state government officials in order for adequate planning on their part.

One Comment

1. 

   Kay Soyemi (Esq.)

   March 24, 2012 at 10:28 am

   The project is clearly beyond the scope of Bi-Courteny and the whole thing is just a big joke presently or perhaps an unprecedented avenue for monumental perfidy. Govt truly needs to go back to the drawing board on this. It is good to use indigenous contractors for local projects but the sizes should be commensurate with their abilities. There is no reason why the project should not have been broken down into manageable chunks for several smaller contractors with the govt department providing quality adherence at each step of the way rather than giving he whole thing to a hustling organisation that clearly cannot deliver.