By Favour Nnabugwu

The Federal Government said it expended N98billion on seven major projects including highways and flyovers in Kano State. The government has also assured Nigerians of better roads in 2014.
The Minister Of State For Works, Bashir Yugudu who made this known during the inspection of the N15 billion Kundila Roundabout flyover  still under construction in Kano,assured Nigerians of more road projects next year.

Yuguda explained that the ministry got 70 percent of its budget and was able to execute a good number of projects across the country. According to him,  funding from SURE-P also helped in delivering on the projections.

The Minister listed the projects financed with the N98 billion as the dualisation of Kano-Maiduguri Road, Section 1 of Kano-Jigawa State Boarder  which is at 40 per cent completion stage; construction of Kano Western Bypass, which has attained a 52 per cent completion level and clearing the ground for the construction of the first phase of Doka-Gulu Road in Rimin Gado Local Government Area of Kano State.. “2014 will be a better year for Nigerians in terms of infrastructures we will deliver. Even though, based on our budget envelop, we were not able to achieve a 100 per cent, the funding pattern from SURE-P has helped us in delivering these projects,” he said.

There are about seven projects that the Federal Government is undertaking in Kano State, but the key project that we are handling is Kano to Maiduguri, because the road starts from Kano and the progress of work there is encouraging. The other important project that we are handling is the Western Bypass, which is the bypass that connects to the Kano-Maiduguri Road.

The other work that we are executing is the flagship project, but it is the dualization from Kano to Katsina, which is one of the campaign promises by President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said..

”He has fulfilled the promise and the contract has been awarded. By next year, he will come and flag-off the project. All in all, we have seven projects in Kano, totaling about N98bn,We have done the best we can under the constraint of the funding,” he said. “We have also tried to open up accessibility from the south to the north, by reactivating and working on Ilorin, Jeba, Mokwa, Jebigwari from there to Kaduna. That is one of the major roads that has been in a very bad state for a long time and the project has been award,” he said.

The Minister of State disclosed that work has also started on the dualisation of the Shagamu-Benin-Auchi Road to join the Lokoja-Abuja highway. Similarly, work has commenced on the first portion of the Suleja-Minna Road while the contract for the second portion has already been awarded. Also the contractors for the flagship Kebbi-Sokoto-Tambuwal-Jega road had been fully mobilised.

The Ministry, he said, had opened up accessibility from South to North by reactivating the Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Birnin Gwari-Kaduna Road which would be eventually privatised.