N100bn needed to reconstruct Apapa road — Fashola

The design and other requirements needed for the reconstruction of the Apapa road in Lagos State are ready, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said.He also reiterated that the Apapa area was a priority to the Federal Government under the ministry’s programme to solve the issue of roads leading to critical ports in the country, adding that the amount needed to reconstruct the road was N100bn.Fashola also stated that arrangements for the deployment of an enduring solution in Wharf Road, also in Lagos, were nearing completion, adding that a couple of private companies had offered to work with the government to fix the road.The Special Adviser to the Ministeron Communications, Mr. Hakeem Bello, said in a statement on Sunday that Fashola disclosed this at a retreat in Abuja, where he noted that what was left on the Apapa road was to sign a formal Memorandum of Understanding before proceeding to the Federal Executive Council for approval.The minister was quoted as saying, “I just want to appeal to residents of Apapa and to people whose livelihood depends on Apapa, that Apapa is one of the priority roads under our priority of works to solve roads that lead to critical ports.“We also have Calabar on our radar. But one by one, there will bean enduring solution. We’ve done the design, we’ve done everything for Apapa; it is ready. It is going to be a concrete road, I believe, that will last another 30 years. So, we are close to starting work.”Fashola, according to the statement, was certain that work would start on the road in a coupleof weeks, and pointed out that irrespective of the fact that the funds of the companies offering tosupport the project were private money, there had to be some transparency on how to move ahead.