The Nigerian Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola has stated that the Second Niger Bridge has reached 91 percent completion rate.
Fashola announced this on Thursday, March 24, during the Special Weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja.
The Minister also revealed that the 206 billion naira project has directly employed 1,486 people, with 8,110 indirect jobs equally created.
Fashola pegged major projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development fund including the 375km Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway estimated (797 billion naira); the 11.59km Second Niger Bridge (206 billion naira) and the 127km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (310 billion naira) at 1.3 trillion naira.
He noted that the Lagos Ibadan Express Way and Second Niger Bridge will be completed by the end of the year while the main Carriageway of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2023.
It should be recalled that the Second Niger Bridge was first proposed during the 1978/79 political campaign by then-candidate Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
However, in August 2012, the Federal Executive Council under then-President Jonathan’s administraion, approved a contract worth N325 million for the final planning and design of the bridge.
By Feranmi Okuku
