Minister of Works, David Umahi, has confirmed that the Nigerian government will toll the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as soon as it is completed and inaugurated.
Umahi who stated this on Saturday in Lagos during an inspection tour of the project, said the government and the contractor handling the project, Hitech Construction Company Limited, have begun talks on the tolling process once the highway is completed and unveiled.
Umahi stated that the contractor has been mandated to give the government its programme and begin to build infrastructure before the end of April, so that the toll points can be incorporated into the route as soon as it’s complete and as soon as it is commissioned.
“We have concluded the re-measurements, and we are a country with a lot of other issues, and we have gone to the Bureau of Public Procurement; so, there is no opening to increase the project further,” the former Ebonyi State governor said while speaking on extra budgetary allocation for the highway project.
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“We have a total of N170 billion increments on the project as a result of this and the diversion of the projects to save those high-rise buildings at the beginning of the project, the shore protection we encountered and then a lot of refuse dumps that were evacuated – some up to 15 metres deep and stretching over many kilometres.
“Hitech has to bare this risk, and that is part of its contribution in building our nation. I must emphasise that this road is going to be tolled by the contractor; it is part of the package.
“I will be inviting the contractor to give us the programme. I don’t want to open this permanently for traffic, and then we begin to talk about tolling.”
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