BY FESTUS OKOROMADU
The Federal Executive Council has approved the sum of N495 million for the provision and installation of baggage scanners at all railway stations in the country.
The Minister of State for Transportation, Ademola Adegoroye stated this while briefing journalists after the weekly council meeting presided over by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Minister said the deployment of the devices became imperative because of the need to advance the security of lives and property in the nation’s railway facilities and in continuation of the railway revolution in the sector.
“The Council agreed with us and has approved that contract for scanners to be installed at railway stations so that when people get there and have goods, then they can pass through the scanners and they can be sure that there’s nothing that can destroy, that can cause violence or inflict danger or bring lives and property at stake.
“The scanners cost N495 million. We are trying to put in place a lot of things with the railways, we don’t want people to come and damage all that the government has been trying to put in place in that sector,” he said.
The FEC also approved the sum of N49 billion being the revised sum for the old Enugu-Onitsha road project.
Speaking on the development, Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said his ministry sought and obtained two approvals from the council.
“We presented two memoranda to the council; both were approved; the first is with regards to contract cost revision by way of augmentation for the old Enugu-Onitsha road from Opi junction to Udi-Oji to Anambra border in Enugu State.
“The augmentation was in the sum of N17 billion which revised the contract sum to N49 billion with an additional completion time of 42 months,” he explained.
The minister said the second contract was a fresh contract for the maintenance of the pavement of the third mainland bridge.
“And this was approved in the sum of N6.3 billion for 24 months.
“This is in consonance with the Executive Order 11 signed by the president for the continued maintenance of public infrastructure.
“This contract responds to the questions on potholes that have become manifest on the entire pavement of the deck of the bridge spanning 11 eleven kilometres and the interchanges—Adeniji Adele, Adekunle and Gbagada ramps that all link the bridge; this is for the resurfacing of all that.
“Those who are familiar with the bridge will recall that all of these failures were not this manifest on the bridge as at the time we did some work; and the work that we did concentrated largely on the sub-structure of the bridge—the piles, the underwater piles; the pile caps and also the replacement of the expansion joints and the bearings.’’
He said the maintenance work would restore the driving surface and the aesthetics.
“Some of the rails that have been stolen; some of the planes that have misaligned at the ramps that lead you on and off the bridge,” he said.
