The Kaduna State Government has launched massive roads construction in urban and rural areas across the three senatorial zones to impact on the socio-economic lives of the people.

Speaking to journalists during a tour of road projects in Kaduna, Commissioner for Works, Housing, and Transport, Engr. Hassan Usman Mahmud, said the contracts are part of Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s commitment to develop and make the state great again.

Our reporter gathered that, the roads, which are projects captured in the 2016 budget are at various levels of completion with many set to take place in the 2017 budget.

The Commissioner said the construction of 75 roads have kicked off in Barnawa, 8 kilometres Zaria Road dualisation and another 20 kilometres link roads in Rigasa area.

Mahmud added that there are 53 roads in Kabala, while Ungwan Rimi has 26 roads within the Kaduna metropolis.

He noted that in January this year the state government awarded 11 roads contract including roads earmarked for dualisation and many other township roads. “The four-dualisation projects include the eight-kilometre Zaria Road in Rigasa, which provides access to the

Abuja – Kaduna train terminal and the busy Aliyu Makama Road in Barnawa, a 5.7-kilometre road. Others included the Ungwan Dosa and Sabon Birni dualisation projects.”

Mahmud stated that the road projects would ease the transportation difficulties faced by residents.

He said: “29 more contracts were awarded covering roads in both urban and rural areas in 18 of the 23 LGAs of the state. We have awarded 30 other contracts. These include some township roads in Kafanchan, Sabon Gari, Zaria, Hunkuyi, Giwa, Makarfi, Ikara, Kauru, Kaura, and other

Local Government Areas and I believe more will also come in all the parts of the state.”

While enumerating some of the projects being constructed by the state government, the commissioner said some of the projects have been completed while some are at different stages of execution.

He said in the metropolis, Unwgan Doki Road in Ungwan Sarki was among the seven roads in the area that were completed 100 % seven months ago.

He explained further the scope of some of the projects: “The Zaria road project in Rigasa is awarded in January this year and it has 18-month completion period. The length of the road is eight kilometres and the road provides access to the Abuja-Kaduna rail terminal in Rigasa.

But we could not start the work until we pay all compensations claims.

“The intention of this project is to dualise about eight kilometers to and fro. We did the valuation and payment of the compensation through Kaduna Geographic Information Service (KADGIS) but it was a private firm that did the evaluation of all structures affected and we are satisfied with the entire process before we affected payments to all the people.

“Right inside Rigasa after the dualisation, we recognised that there will be higher traffic because of the Abuja-Kaduna Light Rail terminal so in addition to the dualisation of this road we are doing other township roads, their length is 20 kilometers in all.”

The commissioner said in addition to the dualisation of the Aliyu Makama road in Barnawa, there are other 75 township roads and side drain being done.

“Aliyu Makama road in Barnawa is one of the four roads earmarked for dualisation. It will be dualised because of high traffic. It is a 5.7 kilometer altogether. It starts from the station roundabout to Sabon Tasha Junction. In all the roads we have made provisions for

streetlight and relocations of services like the electric poles, communication masts, and water pipes on the roads,” he said.

The commissioner, who described the progress made on the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project in the Kaduna metropolis, which is near completion said: “The BRT begins from the Kawo overhead bridge to NDA, to Rabba Road, Ungwan Sarki and terminates at Lugard Hall Roundabout.

The road involves the expansion of an already existing dualised roads to make more lanes on both sides. In all, we will have three lanes on both sides. The purpose is to be able to have a single dedicated lane that will be solely and uniquely for the specialised bus service called the

Rapid Bus Transport (BRT) the kind we have in developed cities and Lagos.

“The project was to finish this November but we will not meet up with this date. This may go into February 2017 when we expect to finish this project because the contractor is closing for Christmas,” Mahmud said.

•Photo shows Governor El-Rufai.

Update news