By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has disclosed that the Second Niger Bridge linking Anambra and Delta states should be completed by the end of this year.
The facility was previously scheduled for completion in February 2022, but this deadline was not met.
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, while speaking at the Special Weekly ministerial briefing at the State House in Abuja, promised that the bridge will be finished this year.
He told newsmen that the project was already at 91 per cent stage of completion, noting that the N206 billion bridge will bring ease to Nigerians, adding that it has directly employed 1,486 people, while 8,110 indirect jobs have equally been created.
According to him, major projects under the Presidential Infrastructure Development fund include the 375km Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway estimated at N797 billion; the 11.59km Second Niger Bridge at N206 billion and the 127km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at N310 billion naira, totalling N1.3 trillion.
On completion, he said the Lagos Ibadan Express Way and Second Niger Bridge will be completed by the end of the year while the main Carriageway of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway is scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2023.
The Second Niger Bridge was first proposed during the 1978/79 political campaign by then-candidate Shehu Shagari of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).
But successive military coups and democratic administrations could not make remarkable progress.
However, in August 2012, the Federal Executive Council under then-President Goodluck Jonathan approved a contract worth N325 million for the final planning and design of the bridge.
Following his failed bid in 2015, the Jonathan administration could not see the project progress.
President Muhammad Buhari had also first cancelled the earlier contract in August 2015 but later revamped the infrastructure.