Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), says the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has delivered three critical infrastructure projects that defied solutions for decades.
The minister said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the 21st edition of Town Hall Meeting focusing on the achievements of the Federal Government in Infrastructure Development.
The town hall meeting was organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
In a presentation, Fashola said that Apapa-Oworonshoki road in Lagos State, notorious for gridlock and in bad shape for decades, was one of the difficult projects.
He said the road built in 1970 had failed intermittently and seemed to have defied solution in the history of the country.
Fashola said Buhari found solution to the critical infrastructure with the construction of a new 37 km road from Apapa Port to the Toll Gate which would last for at least 50 years after completion.
The minister also identified Bodo-Bonny Bridge in Rivers which was the only access to the site of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas.
“For decades, this place is only accessible by air and when there is bad weather which are a usual occurrence people cannot get there for days.
“Three attempts had been made by the previous administrations to construct the bridge but all failed,’’ he said.
Fashola said the Buhari administration succeeded in constructing the first road and bridge linking Bonny Island in highly challenging environment and soil condition
The third project according to Fashola is the Second Niger Bridge which he said would be delivered and inaugurated before the end of the year.
The minister said the second Niger Bridge had always come up as an election statement by past administrations and nothing happened until Buhari broke the jinx.
The minister said the administration awarded 1,019 infrastructure contracts covering 859 projects across the country and no state was left out without benefitting from the projects.
He said the administration also took an initiative to fix roads inside federal tertiary institutions and the impact had really worth the efforts.
“We are in 76 federal tertiary institutions we have completed and commission 29 and starting a round of 22 last year before the ASUU strike.
“Our promise of change as a party and government is manifesting in the area of road transport infrastructure
“The money we borrowed is being invested in all part of Nigeria and it is driving growth,’’ he said.
