No Payment For Destroyed Illegal Structures – Bysg

Bayelsa State Government has said that it will not pay for any illegal structures destroyed in the course of correcting the distorted master plan for Yenagoa, the state capital and therefore warned land developers to contact the office of the Commissioner for State Capital Development and Urban Renewal for approval of their building plans.

The Commissioner in charge of the Ministry Barrister Zuma Konugah who stated this while briefing newsmen on the activities of his office, said that the ministry is going to correct the inherent distortion of the original plans of the state capital as it begins to carry out massive infrastructure development that would includes opening of natural water ways, mapping areas for specific projects and proper designations of the streets.

Barrister Konugah said that the Ministry is going to create a new world class Motor Park, relocated all the communal markets that is presently constituting traffic challenges,while a water channel from Agwura to Igbogene would be open to address the issues of flooding during rainy seasons.

He said the state government has engaged an Israeli firm, to carry out feasibility study of the capital city, and the result will soon be ready for implementations.

According to him the Ministry is also carrying out massive housing programmes to address the issue of accommodations, pleading that the press should help to enlightened the resident of Yenagoa on the need to support the ministry in its efforts to create serene environment for them.

In another development, the Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Mr Ball Oyarede has warned that any contractor who failed to deliver on scheduled time the building project giving to him will have such contracts revoked.

Conducting journalists round some of the building projects undertaking by his Ministry, Mr Oyarede said the projects which are located at Toru-Olua, Aliebiri, and Ekeremor are expected to be completed in March, lamenting that while some contracts are at the finishing torch, some are still at the foundation levels.

He said that each of the housing units cost about N6.5m, as total of 50 were initially proposed for each location but was later reduced to 25 of the need to complete them with available funds.

According to him, the total cost of the buildings is put at N257million, this does not includes clearing of the sites, stressing that the housing units will helped to provide accommodation to staff of government institutions nearest them.

The commissioner also disclosed that in due course, the projects would be spread across the eight local government areas of the state, stating the most challenging aspect of it is the paucity of funds, and the submerging of the most sites by last year’s years flood, which in effect delayed the early take off of the projects.

At Alebiri, a contractor and indigene of the area thanks Dickson’s administration for the project which he said has added another facelift to the community while at Ekeremor was livid that there was no variations on the contract value joining from the distance and different terrains of each project sites.