The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Mohammed Bello, has given an assurance that the 13.25-kilometre Apo-Karshi Road will be completed and opened for public use before this year’s rains.
The minister gave the assurance on Wednesday while fielding questions from state house reporters after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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The road, which contract was first awarded in 2011 to Kakatar Engineering Limited, a company owned by Azibaola Robert, a cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, was designed to ease the gridlock at the AYA-Nyanya-Mararaba section of the Abuja-Keffi Road that links Abuja Metropolis with some densely populated satellite towns like Karshi and Mararaba.
The contract was awarded by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) at N6.4bn.
Bello, while speaking on the delay in the completion of the project, attributed it to error of design. When reminded that commuters faced daily gridlock on the Abuja-Keffi Road due to the delay in completion of the road, the minister said the initial challenges encountered by the contractor had been surmounted, adding that work was at an advanced stage.
He explained that, “The Karshi-Apo Road is a project that should have been delivered by now. One of the main challenges faced in that road had to do with error in the design, whereby a huge rock outcrop on the alignment of the road corridor became very difficult to be able to arrange. But we are very happy to say that it is now almost taken care of. I believe within a few months’ time, hopefully before onset of the rains this year, that road would be opened.
