Govenor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has said that the Federal Government awarded contract for the rehabilitation of the 84-kilometers Alkaleri-Futuk road.
Mohammed disclosed this when the Managing Director of North East Development Commission (NEDC), Alhaji Mohammed Goni-Alkali, inspected the road project on Thursday.
The governor said that the road is the main economic corridor that linked Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa, Benue and Plateau States.
“This is where we have most of the mineral deposits where the Americans are coming to establish a cement plant.
“We also have oil, gas and other mineral deposits here,” he said.
According to him, the contract for the road rehabilitation is awarded through the Federal Ministry of Works at the tune of N32 billion.
Mohammed said that rehabilitation of the road was critical in view of its economic importance of this corridor.
He said that N1.5 billion had been set aside by the federal government through the NEDC to mobilise the contractor to fast track rehabilitation of the road, assuring that the contractor would be mobilised before the end of the rainy season.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has listened and responded to the plea because it is not the plea of only the people of Bauchi State, it is the plea of the entire North-East considering the strategic importance of the road.
“The President created the NEDC that is doing well and brought a lot of beneficial interventions in the North-East,” he said.
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Mohammed also sought the support of the NEDC for the rehabilitation of 34 kilometer Kirfi – Gombe road, adding that the project would open up area, enhance transportation services and ease movement of agricultural produce to the markets.
Goni-Alkali had earlier flagged off construction of 500 housing units as part of NEDC’s intervention to address housing deficit in Bauchi State.
The NEDC’s officials are also billed to inspect facilities at the National Visco Viginal Fistula (VVF) Centre, Ningi.
