The Federal Government has informed Nigerians that the Second Niger Bridge will have tolls when it is fully operational.
Babatunde Fashola (SAN), the minister of works and housing, said this on Channels TV on Wednesday.
The Federal Government opened the bridge for the holiday season from December 15, 2022, until January 15, 2023, according to Prime9jaOnline.
Fashola stated on Wednesday that infrastructure is one of the tools for economic growth and addressing multidimensional poverty. He attributed the project's delay to the Indigenous People of Biafra's South East sit-at-home protest on Monday.
“The purpose of the Second Niger Bridge is to bring relief to Nigerians who traverse from East to West or West to East, especially during the end of the year.
“We know it is a logistics nightmare moving goods, services, and people.
“The bridge itself is finished.
“The road linking it to the Obusi end on the Anambra side is finished, except for the interchange, which is at different levels of completion.
“The road linking it to the Asaba side is the one we could not finish.
“We know that it is a festive period.
“The ports are busy, sea and airports.
“The roads will also be busy.
“As part of the ember month plan, we decided to open it up and provide a choice for people (to either use the old bridge or the new one).
“We expect it will relieve the inconvenience at this time of the year.
“We did the same thing on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“There is still work to be done there, but we think it can get better if we remove the construction barriers so that it is a proper, thorough fair.
“We did the same thing in Abuja-Kano.
“On Abuja-Kano, which is 365 km, we have only five obstructions, and they are for safety.
“The current opening (on the Second Niger bridge) for motorists is for those going to the East and will end on the 1st of January.
“It is currently a one-way crossing.
“On January 2nd, we will reverse what we have done and allow people to use it from January 3rd, for those going back from the East to West.
“On the 15th of January, we will shut it down again to finish the 4km access road that we are trying to build and complete the interchanges.
“Truth be told, the target date for completion is around April to May, but these dates keep shifting, and people must remember that on the eastern side, our contractors have not been able to work on Mondays for almost two years.
“That has affected the completion day.
“We have also had some challenges that we had to overcome in terms of timelines.
“We had to relocate all the transmission lines connecting the east to the west across that river – all of them had to be moved.
“Again, we lost some days because the power company had to shut down.
“They had contracts to supply energy, take gas, etc.
“All of these things are unseen
“Inevitably, the bridge will be tolled.
“That is the job of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.
“Part of what we are looking at is that we have a properly maintained bridge.”