Work Begins On Port Harcourt/Enugu Road In 2013 – Officials

Rehabilitation work on the Port Harcourt-Enugu expressway
may commence in 2013, Federal Government officials indicated in Umuahia.

The Director, Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Mr Eugene
Baror, and the Federal Controller of Works in Abia, Mr Nasiru Bello, gave the
indication while explaining factors responsible for the poor state of federal
roads in Abia.

The two were summoned last week by the Abia State House of
Assembly following a motion by Hon. Martins Azubuike, the member representing
Isiala Ngwa North, on the deplorable state of federal roads in the state.

“For any meaningful work to take place on the Port Harcourt
road, there must be adequate budgetary provision and such is beyond the Federal
Ministry of Works,’’ Bello told the lawmakers.

The Federal Controller of Works said that rehabilitation
works on some federal roads in the state might not be completed due to fears
that budgetary provisions for them were not adequate.

“The following roads are selected for rehabilitation,
Umuahia-Bende-Ohafia, Aba-Ikot Ekpene, Enugu-Port Harcourt and Umuahia-Ikot
Ekpene in the 2012 fiscal year and are at various stages of completion. But the
fear is that funds allocated to them might not be enough,’’ Bello said.

He stated that the problem of Port Harcourt-Enugu road was
multiple, noting that unless the Federal Government resolved all pending issues
with the contractor, reasonable work might not commence on the road, at least,
by the end of December.

“The contractor handling Port Harcourt-Enugu road project
abandoned site during the era of kidnapping in Abia. He equally complained of
lack of funds, and these must be addressed for the contractor to return to
site,’’ he said.

Bello told the lawmakers that what might take place on the
road was remedial work executed under the Subsidy Re-investment Programme of
the Federal Government.

Also, the FERMA director said the mandate of the agency was
to maintain already existing good roads and not to repair or rehabilitate roads
in a state of massive disrepair.

The Abia Commissioner for Works, Mr Kingsley Mgbeahuru,
expressed regret that the Federal Government had yet to begin any tangible move
to address the problem of federal roads in the state, saying “it is clear from
the responses of these two federal officials that noting tangible is being done
to address the poor state of the Abia end of the Port Harcourt/Enugu
Expressway,’’ Mgbeahuru said.