The Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, has shed light on the contentious issue surrounding the cost of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, revealing that each kilometer of the construction amounts to N4 billion, contrary to earlier claims made by political figures.
According to reports, Umahi made this clarification in response to statements made by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 election, who alleged that one kilometer of the road project was budgeted at N8 billion.
Appearing as a guest on national television, Umahi refuted claims that the project bypassed procurement processes and was awarded without competitive bidding. He emphasized that the project was initiated on a counter-funding basis, not through a Public-Private Partnership as suggested.
He highlighted that the coastal road encompasses 10 lanes with additional shoulders, amounting to approximately 23 meters in width. He emphasized the significance of utilizing concrete pavement on the four-lane carriageway.
By utilizing this approach, Umahi asserted that the project’s cost equates to N4 billion per kilometer, significantly lower than Atiku’s estimations.
He said, “People are just building castles without knowledge and they don’t know figures, I will run the figures for you. We are going to compare the cross-section of the one the former vice president mentioned that was renegotiated for $11.1bn for 700 km.”
“So you have to now ask what was there to be constructed. And what was there to be constructed is the only available design from NDDC. They had designed the entire 700 km but we are not following exactly that pattern or right of way. We have a different modification. The original design had two carriageways on each side of the road with four lanes.
“And in the middle, they did not provide for the train track. It’s just going to be a water-collecting basin. But the coastal road we are constructing has a total of 10 lanes, you know, not only that it has a total of 10 lanes, it also has what we called shoulders.
“And the total shoulders can be put at about 23 metres. So when you put the total concrete pavement we are doing, it’s about 59 metres. When you put the total flexible pavement that he quoted it’s about 23 metres.” he said.
He continued, “And so when you run the figures, you now find out that under his calculation, it is giving you about over N19bn per kilometre. Now if you divide it by the 23 kilometres that they are doing, it is about 2.225 times a standard superhighway carriageway, which is N11.55 billion.
“Whereas what we are doing, if you divide it, you get N5.167bn, So when you now divide using our N1.067 trillion, you get about N4 billion per kilometre. If you go back to what he has quoted, you will get over N8 billion. So using concrete, which should be more expensive because of the kind of terrain we have, and using flexible pavement, which shouldn’t stand the coastal route, you will find out that our cost is N4bn instead of the N8 billion claimed by the former vice president.”
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