Construction work on the ongoing Asa Dam - Egbejila -Airport road project is to be completed April next year.
The State Commissioner for Works and Transport Alhaji Aro Yahaya disclosed this in Ilorin while briefing members of the State House of Assembly on the current status of the road.
It will be recalled that the House in its sitting last week presided over by the Speaker Dr Ali Ahmaad, resolved to invite the Commissioner to brief the House on the status of the road, due to stoppage of work on the construction of the road resulting into loss of live occasioned by flooding.
Alhaji Yahaya who regretted the attendant loss of live on the ongoing road project said the completion of the project was delayed due to paucity of fund, intensity of rainfall and redesign of culvert to bridge to accommodate the volume of erosion along the ongoing road project.
He said the road project awarded in 2014 at a cost of N900m would be given priority by the State Government in view of its strategic importance stressing that the sum of N250m had so far been paid to the contractor.
He said the State Government would never handle the resolutions of the House with Kid's glove and assured that construction work on the road would be completed as scheduled.
The Commissioner also disclosed that work would commence fully after rain season on all ongoing road projects in the State, as most contractors according to him had been mobilised to site.
The Speaker in his response insisted vehemently that the April completion date for the road project was sacrosanct to the Legislators.
Dr Ahmad who expressed displeasure over the lukewarm attitude of the State Government over the non-completion the road which he said resulted into attendant loss of live, said the project was one of the priority road projects the House submitted to the State Government for completion at the beginning of the current fiscal year.
The Speaker urged the State Government to mobilise fund and ensure that the project was completed on schedule.
Other members who spoke on the road project blamed the State Ministry of Works and Transports as well as the Consultant that designed the project for the delay in the completion of the project.
They insisted that the April completion date disclosed by the commissioner was not realistic, in view of the fact that only 28% mobilisation fee had so far been paid by the State Government.
Meanwhile the House had deferred its approval on confirmation and establishment of Infrastructure Fund of the State (IF-K) forwarded by the State Governor Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed.
The House in its resolution resolved to invite the state commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning ,the State Chairman, and secretary of the Board of Public Private Partnership (PPP) , Chairman Kwara State Internal Revenue Service and the Director General of the Bureau of Public Private Partnership to a clear grey areas observed by members in the operations and structure of the IF-K .
