Monday, November 26, 2012

LAGOS IBADAN EXPRESSWAY SAGA


Monday

Hallelujah!  Superb news today, the Federal Govt has terminated the contractors who were to have repaired the Lagos Ibadan Expressway from May 2009 for 25 years under a design, build, operate and transfer (DBOT) scheme.

For many years that stretch or road has steadily gotten worse causing numerous accidents and loss of life. The 105km expressway is the busiest in the whole of West Africa. Each time I have to ply that road, I have prayed every step of the way. It is a living nightmare. The road is crater ridden, with thousands of oil tankers dangerously parked on the sides of the road. Armed robbery is a daily occurrence. It has become a health hazard and this news could not have come sooner. Well done Fed Govt, I hope many more much need infrastructural repairs will be undertaken to lift the country out of this quagmire of decay, it has fallen into
The contract has been deservedly allocated to Julius Berger and RCC Nigeria Ltd. I know it will take some years to be completed, but we all look forward to some sanity on that road henceforth
!

Tuesday

Someone called me today to visit what was previously a hotel, but the owner wanted to turn the 40 room hotel into one bed self contained accommodation for, young people, singles or short stays. This is the third such request I have received in the last two months. It appears that some hotels are folding up due to management issues and the owners want the hotels converted to short stay accommodation. What the owners need to be aware of is that the facility management of this type of accommodation needs to be reliable and immediate. Things like generators cannot afford to break down and have long down times. Security and cleaning need to be top notch! There is no need seeking clients if the facilities are run down.

Wednesday

The Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge that is being built by Julius Berger is approaching completion and is a beautiful sight to behold especially at night when it is lit up. It is a vast improvement on the landscape and surrounding squalor that we are accustomed to seeing. The Government should contract out all the road and bridge building works to Julius Berger. From what I gather the Third Mainland Bridge, despite being shut for repairs for four months, still has a repair problem.

Thursday

The talk on power privatisation seems to be a recurring subject that is not going anywhere. If anything, power supply seems to be more elusive now than at any other time. It appears that from the day after the resignation of the last Power Minister, the power supply to the whole nation dropped by 80%. The cost of diesel has once again risen as demand is high.

Friday

Every day we see different figures and deadlines put out by the Federal Government for the increase in megawatts of power. In 2009 we were to expect 6000mw by that year end, instead it dropped to 2300mw. In 2010, we were told to expect 10,000mw, it never rose beyond 2,500mw. In 2011, we were again told it will go up by year end, again nothing. In 2012 we saw an improvement between June and September to about 5000mw. It now seems back to the original 2,300mw. We are again now told to expect 10,253mw by December 2013…

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