Buhari To Flag-Off Construction Of Super Highway In Cross River

By Our Correspondent

‎

Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade, has disclosed that work on the proposed Calabar Deep Seaport will commence in October 20015.

Ayade revealed this yesterday, while on an assessment tour of the Creek Town Jetty and connecting routes that will serve as evacuation corridor for the deep seaport.

Addressing journalists shortly after the inspection, Ayade said: “My intention, first of all is that the evacuation route which is the dual carriage super highway will begin in the next couple of weeks. So, within the next one or two weeks, I want to look at Mr. President’s program and try to convince him to come and perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the dual carriage way.”

The governor who hinted that the design of the seaport is ongoing further added: “Tentatively, by 15th of this month, I should have the feasibility report on the project. By October, we should begin the actual construction of the seaport. For the road, I see that starting in two weeks. However, I just have to delay the commencement in order to get His Excellency, President Muhammad Buhari’s approval to come for the groundbreaking ceremony.”

On the cost of the project, Ayade, while admitting it was huge, however said: “The project is very expensive, but only expensive as the mind conceives it to be expensive. But the good thing is that I have got very good colleagues of mine who are excited and eager to key into the project. I already have the equipment for the pilling work and I am donating the services of my own company to the state at no cost. Accordingly, the cost is going to be cut down by half.”

Continuing, the governor said: “We are adopting creative means to minimize the use of third party contractors and stay within the infrastructure components of the project.

“The agenda we set is to build a seaport with an evacuation route. And once we do that, of course, the entire economy of the state will change. Also the dependency on the center for sustenance will also dramatically change. So far everybody in the state is keying into to the projects because they know the huge spin offs from them.”