Minster of Works, David Umahi has directed MTN to commit N15billion monthly for the next 10 months to hasten the completion of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway.
The minster warned that failure by the telecommunication giant to provide the funding for the project as directed, the firm risk the contract for the road project being terminated.
Umahi gave the directive when a delegation of the Anambra and Enugu caucus of the National Assembly, visited him to seek the federal government’s intervention on the completion of the construction of the Enugu -Onitsha Expressway being handled by RCC Limited and funded by MTN under the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme.
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A press statement issued on Saturday, by the minister’s media aide, Uchenna Orji, stated that Umahi said MTN would need theee contractors to complete the 79 kilometers road within the original contract sum off ₦202 billion.
Also, the minister said the remaining 72km of the road will be awarded to other contractors through due process and that MTN and RCC will be invited to bid.
Umahi assured the people of the South East of the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to the transformation of the transportation infrastructure in the region like every other geopolitical zone of the country.
The minister who expressed deep sympathy over the lives that have been lost along the uncompleted sections of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, especially in the recent fuel tanker explosion sltated that the people of the South East have every reason to have implicit confidence in the ability and will of the Tinubu administration to address the road infrastructure deficits in Nigeria.
Lleader of the caucus delegation and Senate Minority Whip, representing Enugu West, Senator. Osita Ngwu, commended the minister for the unprecedented scale of road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance nationwide.He however, expressed worry that some of the projects were not receiving adequate funding required to complete the projects in record time.
Sen. Ngwu made particular reference to the Enugu -Onitsha Expressway that was awarded to RCC and funded through the tax credit scheme,, expressing regrets that some sections of the road have now become dead traps to road users.
He stated that the delegation was compelled by the recent fuel tanker mishap on the Ugwu Onyeama axis of the road in Enugu State to visit the minister.
He expressed the readiness of the National Assembly members to offer necessary collaboration and cooperation that would help in tackling the challenges and bottlenecks faced by the ministry in ensuring the completion of the said road.
