THE Minister of Works, Sen David Umahi, has said that the federal government will pay Julius Berger Construction Company N20 billion monthly to complete the 82km section it is handling on the Abuja-Kano highway for the next 14 months.
The minister, during a meeting with the company to review all road contracts it is undertaking, lamented the paucity of funds to complete all major roads it inherited.
In a statement by his media, Orji Uchenna Orji, the minister stated that the roads included Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria- Kano; Phase 2 of Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Second Niger Bridge; Third Mainland Bridge, Iddo Bridge and Carter Bridge.
The statement read in part: “In keeping with the directive of the Federal Executive Council with respect to all inherited and new projects being handled by a number of multinational companies being delayed due to issues of price differentials or poor funding, the Federal Ministry of Works has opened a decisive discussion with Julius Berger Plc on all the inherited and new projects handled by them.
With a view to appraising their performance and take decisions on funding and milestones completion of all such awarded projects as part of the measures of the Renewed Hope administration to mitigate the suffering of road users at this moment of economic challenges.”
The minister urged the contractor to be open to a mutually agreed modality for milestone execution and funding of the projects at reviewed rates as might be agreed upon and approved by the Federal Executive Council.
The statement further reads: “On the section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road agreed to be handled by Julius Berger Plc, he commended the quality of work being done but directed the contractor to stick to one carriageway at a time within the scope and conclude their works. The contractor was further directed to, within three weeks, fill the two carriageways with stone base and level it to alleviate the sufferings of road users. He further agreed that the project, within their own corridor, will last for 14 months. Project execution should be deployed in four sections, and we will be paying Berger N20bn every month to get the job completed.”
