Niger state government has released N77 million to Soject Nigeria Limited, for immediate completion of collapsed Dangana bridge in Lapai Local Government Area of the state.
The Commissioner of Finance, Alhaji Zakari Abubakar, disclosed this to newsmen when the state Deputy governor, Alhaji Ahmed Ketso inspected the bridge on Friday.
The reports stated that the bridge collapsed in 2017 and an alternative diversion created got flooded during a heavy rain on Thursday night leaving commuters including vehicles conveying for burial the corpse of the late mother of Mr Jonathan Vatsa, Former Commissioner of Information stranded.
Zakari said that already the state government had made payment to the contractor, adding that the sum of N77 million was released to enable the contractor complete the construction of the bridge.
Ketso said that the reconstruction of the bridge was part of the state government intervention to fix the collapsed bridge to ease vehicular movement.
He directed the contractor to create a temporary diversion for motorists and appealed to commuers to exercise patience, adding that measures had been taken to hasten the construction work.
” We want to appeal to the road users to be patient as we are doing everything possible to fix the bridge to reduce the hardship being experienced by our people plying the road.
“Though the road is a federal road, we cannot just seat and watch our people going through hardships that is why we are intervening before the federal government assistance comes, ” he said
Meanwhile, Mr Milad Jarbanda, Contractor, Soject Nigeria Limited, said that the contract for the reconstruction of the bridge was awarded to the company at the cost N470 million.
He gave assurance that the construction of bridge would be completed within the next few weeks.
Malam Kabiru Umaru, a motorist who spoke to a reporter, expressed dissatisfaction with the quick intervention of the state government over the rehabilitation of the bridge that collapsed on January 2017.
“I am a regular user of this road, because I convey passengers from Lapai to Munye, a border town between Niger and Kogi, this bridge collapsed since last year and yet the reconstruction is at slow pace.
“This is the only closer route to Kogi and most of the drivers prefer the route. We are calling on the state government to as a matter of urgency, intervene to reduce our hardship,” he said.
