The Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma Egba says the Federal Government has awarded contract for the rehabilitation of some federal roads in the country.
Ndoma-Egba, who disclosed this in an interactive session with Cross River Council of Chiefs on Tuesday in Calabar, said: “we are beginning to derive the benefits of our position.”
“Few weeks ago, we were at the Ministry of works for the signing of the contracts for Ogoja-Ikom roads, Enugu-Abakaliki roads, Calabar-Itu roads, Calabar- Urban Nsan-Okoroba roads.
“We have had meetings with the contractor and the site will be delivered to them on the Jan 16, 2012.
“So when I go back to Abuja, I will work very closely with them so that we agree between the contractors and the ministry of works.’’
Ndoma-Egba promised that during the dry season, intensive work would begin in most of the federal roads in the country.
He said the project was being sponsored by the World Bank, adding that the quality of work would meet the international standard.
The Senate leader said there would be no problem of funding and assured that all the money for the entire projects was domiciled in a dedicated account.
“It is just for the contractor to work and raise certificate so that he can redraw the money from the bank,’’ he said.
Ndoma-Egba said that Enugu-Abakaliki and Ogoja –Ikom roads had been awarded, pointing out that Ikom-Cameroun Boarder road had been completed.
He said that the road designated as Trans African Highway would link through Ikom- Mamfe, Cameroun to Central Africa Republic and Kenya saying that the contract was awarded to Setracco Nigeria.
He said that part of the Enugu-Abakaliki roads construction had been taken over by the African Development Bank.
On, the senate leader said that Cross River Government had negotiated with Federal Government to agree on a new alignment.
He said the Federal Government had done the design of the Calabar- Urban Nsan Okoroba road up to Okoroba, adding that the parties involved would soon agree on the alignment of the project.
Ndoma-Egba, however, attributed the delay in the rehabilitation of some portions of Calabar-Itu road to what he called the choice of contractor.
“As a state, we have indicated interest in the kind of contractors that should be doing our roads.
“We are hoping that work will start in 2012 because we are pushing for the design to be completed this year.
“We hope that contract for the rehabilitation of that road project will be awarded in 2012. We are taking that road project out of the Federal Ministry of Works budget to the Ministry of Niger Delta Budget.
“Cross River does not have any major project in the Niger Delta Budget. So we want to pursue this one as our project in the Ministry of Niger Delta”, he told the people.
The senator, who noted that work was on-going on Calabar-Ugep road, however, regretted that inadequate funding had slowed the pace of work in the area.
Ndoma-Egba said the Federal Government had promised to increase the funding in the budget for the completion of the Ikom –Calabar road.