Delta State Governor, Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Okowa, has commended the pace of work at the dualisation of Nnebisi road to Cable Point in the state capital, Asaba, saying the project would be completed within three months.

The Governor, accompanied by his Deputy, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro, commissioners and other top government officials, yesterday inspected the road project from Traffic Light, Asaba, and the Okpanam Road dualisation project. He assured that measures have been put in place to ensure that all contractors handling road projects in the state delivers quality work.

Okowa disclosed that the contractor handling the road to Cable Point has given the assurance that the road would be completed within three months.

He also doused fears about early completion of the Okpanam dualisation project, saying: “I think the work in Okpanam is going very well, the dualisation of the road and the drainage is coming up very well and they are moving much faster and we intend to release some mobilisation to the contractor because, I have confirmed that the contractor was not mobilised by the previous administration, so, we intend to release some money to him because, he has been working solely with his company’s fund. When he is mobilised, he will move faster than what is going on now.”

Continuing, the Governor said: “There is still a lot of work to be done because, after the drains are completed, we will also have to do a connecting drainage that will channel all the water from the drains to the river and after the construction of the drains, the road will be dualised to Okpanam from Asaba; it is a huge project but, it will be delivered for the benefits of the people.”

He also spoke on efforts to tackle erosion in Asaba, disclosing: “We want to tackle erosion situation in Asaba because, we have found out that the current surface drains cannot meaningfully take care of the water during the rainy season; we have been advised to construct storm drains which means, we are going to have a very high diameter circular drains that will go very deep down which can take the volume of water and this will take care of the DLA and Jesus Saves road area.”

Senator Okowa also hinted that the work on Okpanam road will be slowed down because a storm drainage has to be constructed all through Okpanam, connecting to Nnebisi to the FMC road which will lead to the River Niger. “These are very major projects. The estimate we have at the moment is about N9 billion because the sewage will be constructed in such a way that it will be big and wide enough for cars to drive though, for people to walk through,” he said.

Governor Okowa also used the occasion to speak on ongoing projects by his administration. He said: “There are lots of ongoing projects at the moment; the Ozanogo road, about four roads have been awarded in Okpe local government area, the Sapele dualisation project will be starting next week and hopefully, the road leading to the Oleh Campus of the Delta State University has been completed but we intend to extend it further to Emede junction; there are other road projects that are going on in the state and we have a project monitoring team which is made up of engineers because we want to make sure that we get value for our money.

“We are in very challenging times, but, we have very good managers in this administration, not just myself but, a team of intelligent people who are putting head together, trying to cut cost and make savings in different ways so that we are able to impact positively on our people; we are looking at generating funds through our internally generated revenue without impacting negatively on our people.”

•Photo shows Governor Okowa.

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