by crossriverwatch admin
Residents of Calabar will soon heave a sigh of relief following the completion of the N2 billion state-of-the-art underground drain tagged ”Channel 2” by the Cross River State government.
Mr Legor Idagbo, the Commissioner for Works, stated this in Calabar after inspecting the final lap of work on the project.
Crossriverwatch reports that the Murtala Muhammed Highway, Calabar, was closed to traffic recently as the final lap of the project progressed.
Crossriverwatch also learnt that the project, which was started in 2011, has been completed and was awaiting inauguration by Governor Liyel Imoke.
Idagbo said the drain was initiated to check the menace of perennial flooding with its attendant loss of lives and wanton destruction of property in Calabar.
He said the flood control project would also strengthen the over-stretched channel 1 that was constructed more than 30 years ago.
The commissioner said government conceived the construction of the drain to save the city from the menace of erosion.
“It is in an effort to reduce this disaster that Governor Liyel Imoke, despite the lean resources of the state, demonstrated courage and political will by mandating my ministry to commence the project,” he said.
Idagbo said the “symbolic project” was now at its final point at the Murtala Muhammed Highway.
He added that “Imoke will be remembered for this giant stride which will bring succor to residents of Calabar”.
Mr. Edem Ekong, Special Adviser, Department of Public Transport, urged commuters to bear with the ministry for obstructing movement of vehicles on the road.
He said the ministry had created an alternative route to reduce the hardship on road users.
He stated that cadets from the department, alongside men of the state department of public transportation and the Police, had been mobilized to ensure free flow of traffic around the area.
Some of the commuters, who spoke to newsmen on the project, lauded the state government for embarking on the project, in spite of the dwindling financial fortunes of the state.
They also expressed the hope that when completed, the traffic chaos often experienced on the road during the rains, would be a thing of the past.
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