The minister of works, David Umahi, has again given the assurance that the reconstruction work on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway will be completed by the first quarter of 2024. But Mr Umahi said he was unhappy witht the pace of the project.

Mr Umahi said this while inspecting the project on Thursday to assess the progress made by the contractor, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.

The minister frowned at the slow pace of work on the road was awarded in 2017.

Mr Umahi noted that insecurity and poor funding were major challenges affecting its timely completion.

”Work on the 375.9km dual-carriage Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road is in three phases, with phase three (Zaria-Kano) at 100 per cent completion. The phase two (Kaduna-Zaria) was at 60 percent completion and Phase one (Abuja-Kaduna) was only at 20 percent completion level,” said Mr Umahi.

The works minister stated that President Bola Tinubu would to ensuring that all impeding factors are sorted out to ensure that the contractor delivers the project in 2024.

“I am here on the directive of Mr President, who has directed that I must be on site to see most of this ongoing projects before I can put figures together,” said Mr Umahi. “Mr president has asked me to assure Kaduna people and everyone that this road is very important to him as part of his renewed hope agenda for Nigerians.”

Mr Umahi stressed that the president “is committed to finishing the road, in 2024, and not 2025 as stated in the contract earlier.”

“We are satisfied with the quality of work, but we are not satisfied with the pace of work,” noted the works minister. “This road is very important, if it is security we will tackle it and provide security in each section where they are working and we also want to deploy solar lights on the roads.”

He urged the contractor to increase the pace of work, directing Julius Berger to ensure that more men and equipment are moved to other sections of the road to ensure that work goes on simultaneously.

Mr Umahi also asked the contractor to introduce concrete in parts of the road for durability.

(NAN)