By Samuel Itsede
The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has led a delegation of the visiting members of the Trans Saharan Road Committee on an inspection of some road works under the scheme.
The site visitation is part of activities marking the visit of the committee to Nigeria as part of efforts to appraise the status of the project in countries that are part of the Committee.
The visiting committee members are made up of five member countries from Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Tchad and the host country Nigeria.
The visit took members of the Committee on an inspection tour of ongoing rehabilitation and expansion works on the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano dual carriageway being handled by Julius Berger and the Abuja-Akwanga-Lafia rehabilitation and expansion project being handled by China Harbour.
Fashola commended the efforts of the contractors handling the project, noting that of the 1,131km of the road network that passes through Nigeria all have been paved and over 90 percent asphalted, noting that the Lagos Algiers route, which passes through Ibadan, Ilorin, Kaduna, Kano, through republic of Niger all the way up to the north African city of Algiers was of utmost importance.
Speaking on the sidelines of the visit the Managing Director of China Habour, Zhang Wenfeng stated that China Harbour would deliver a world-class project, noting that the Abuja Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia rehabilitation and dualisation project was just the first phase of the project as there are plans by the Federal government of Nigeria to extend the rehabilitation and expansion of the road all the way down to Enugu in the southeastern parts of the country from where it would connect the trans African road network.
