C’River approves N3.7bn contract for six km road

Central Calabar

Efforts to decongest Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, and develop new areas to tackle accommodation problems in the state may soon yield results as the state government on Thursday said it had awarded a six kilometre dual carriage way contract worth N3.7bn to open up the metropolis.

The state Commissioner for Works, Mr. Venatius Ikem, said this at the end of the weekly meeting of the State Executive Council.

Ikem explained that preliminary work on the N3.7bn project had commenced, adding that it would be completed within 24 months.

He said the road would stretch from the Federal Government Girls College end of the airport, through a swampy area on MCC Road, terminating at the highway.

According to Ikem, the bypass, on completion, will be of a tremendous benefit to the people, said this in combating traffic congestion and opening up the virgin forest where new layouts will be opened on both sides while a new Calabar Master Plan with an industrial park will be inculcated into it for development.

He added that it would also encourage entrepreneurship and ensured that efforts had been made to ensure that the contractor adhered to local content requirements of the contract in order to ensure employment for the indigenes.

Ikem explained that though the by-pass was envisaged to create access, it would not interfere with the on-going expansion of the airport as there was substantial expanse of land between the two.

On the menace of flooding within the metropolis, Ikem explained that work at the Ikot Uduak site had reached an advanced stage while a new design had been approved to combat the threatened portion of the Beebosco ravine at Ikot Anwatim.

According to him, contract on the latter will be awarded soon because Governor Liyel Imoke has shown interest in it.

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