Kehinde Akinyemi
3 July 2009
Abeokuta — Construction giant Julius Berger Plc has resumed work on the abandoned Ota Bridge and road project following the release of N1.5 billion from the 2009 budget.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, and House Committee Chairman on Works, Rep Chuma Nzeribe, led some other members to the site along Abeokuta/Lagos road last month, where it was made known that the sum of N1.5 billion has been released to Julius Berger to commence work on the project abandoned over two years ago as a result of lack of budgetary provision.
Bankole, who expressed dismay on the untold hardship citizens were subjected to as a result of the non completion of the bridge and road project during the visit, has ensured that the project was provided for in the 2009 budget and was instrumental to the release of fund for this important road project.
However, DailyTrust learnt that the construction company could not immediately move to site "as it has in the intervening period of no funding moved its men and equipment out of the site to other project sites and needed sometime to mobilize back to site after the release of fund for the project," an official told this reporter during a visit to the site on Thursday. Expressing joy at the mobilization back to site by Julius Berger, the Speaker assured that with the release of funds and returning of the company to site, "the bridge and road project will be completed by the end of the year." In a release signed by his Special Adviser Communications, Chief Kayode Odunaro (JP), the Speaker added that motorists, commuters and members of the public in general should cooperate and bear the inconvenience that renewed construction is likely to engender.
Nzeribe, in the release, was quoted as saying that "approval for additional funding for the project is in the pipeline as the project is a critical one in the 7-Point Agenda of President Umaru Yar'adua in the area of infrastructure."
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