The construction of the second Niger Bridge is now to kick off by the end of the first quarter of 2013, the Federal Government has disclosed. This is even as the issues bordering on erosion and deplorable state of federal roads in the South East dominated the discussions at the meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and governors from the South East states, as well as leaders from the region, held at the Presidential Villa till midnight of Wednesday.
Also, political issue and the recent security threat in the region also came up for discussion. Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi said the construction of the second Niger bridge and road infrastructure in the region were discussed.
“We actually came to see the president to brief him on the situation of the South East and also mention one or two issues that are of concern to us and we had a very useful meeting. “Some of the issues are personal to us, but the issue that is of main concern to us is the issue of second Niger bridge, which the minister of works has been working very hard and has promised to deliver,” he said. Obi further said the issue of roads, especially the Enugu – Port-Harcourt Road and the Enugu Onitsha Road came up for discussion.
The Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, said the meeting afforded him the opportunity to brief the governors on the second Niger Bridge. “You will recalled that in December last year, we commenced the procurement process for the Second Niger Bridge and we have achieved a milestone on that particular procurement till date.
“The transaction adviser was appointed a couple of months ago, a couple of months after, they submitted an inspection report on the project. “About a week ago, the request for proposal was issued to the shortlisted consortia who are participating in the procurement process and that is expected to be turned in by the second week of December. “
After the analysis of the Record for Proposal by the various would be concessionaire, a successful concessionaire will be announced and that will be followed quickly by the financial closure. “We are certain that base on our projection by the end of the first quarter of 2013 there will be a breaking of ground on the second Niger project, which means that the successful concessionaire for the project will be on site.”
The minister said that the project would be driven under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement. He said under the PPP arrangement, the Federal Government would take up 30 per cent equity in the stake, while the successful concessionaire would be required to provide the balance of 70 per cent counterpart funding.
In attendance were, governors Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia and Rochas Okorocha of Imo. Also in attendance were Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, other leaders from the South East zone, Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and some presidential aides.
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