Following complaints by various state governments, the Federal Executive Council yesterday approved N105 billion as intervention funds for 44 road projects in the states.
The eight-hour council meeting, presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, also approved N80.199 billion as revised sum for the second section of the 84km Lagos-Ibadan road project.
Also approved was N38.034 billion for the construction of the 72 kilometre 9th-mile Orikam Road in Enugu State. About N10 billion will draw from the Ecological Fund to finance the contract awarded to RCC Limited.
The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, told State House reporters that the council approved N18.874 billion for repair works at the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos State.
The minister said the contract was awarded to an Italian construction firm, Borini Prono, which constructed the bridge.
He said 33 piles of the bridge would be replaced in the first phase of the project with a total of 177 piles to be strengthened.
Fashola added that the contract would also assess the expansion joints of the bridge and replace the worn-out ones.
He said the contract, with a 27-month completion period, was captured as ‘Bridge Renovation and Repair Contracts’ in the yet-to-be-passed 2018 Appropriation Bill.
The minister said though the immediate past administration conceived the award of the contract in 2011, it never made budgetary allocation for it.
He said council also approved N2.54 billion for the redesign and construction of the Illie bridge in Osun State.
Fashola said the FEC also approved N120 million for the purchase of 50 circuit breakers for the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said the FEC approved the repairs of narrow gauge railway line to increase the speed of trains just as well as N1.2bn for the purchase of wagons and coaches.
Amaechi said the council raised a committee comprising himself as well as the Ministers of Niger Delta Affairs, Information and Power Works and Housing to inspect the East-West Road.
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