The Nigerian government has announced that the first section of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway would be completed by May 29, 2025.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi disclosed this at a meeting with contractors on Tuesday in Abuja.
He noted that the government paid N10 billion as compensation to property owners affected by the demolition necessary for the construction of the highway.
According to him, the project would attract investment, tourism, factories and industries when it is completed in ten years.
The minister added that the road had been rerouted and resized to six lanes.
"These projects are investments, and they have inherent returns on investments, By May 29, 2025, we will have completed section one of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway.
"Apart from the land, we are going to acquire for tourism, factories and industries when we tow the road within 10 years we would recover the cost of the money so it is an investment.
"For the three legacy projects by the administration, the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, we have cut down the project size to six lanes, especially from sections two, three, and four, it shows you that we mean business. Some people have been writing that we have stopped the project. No project is stopped. As we are talking now, over four kilometers of concrete road have been completed on six lanes.
"We had to establish a new path due to complaints made by MTN on its subsea cable and Okuaja community, we had to reroute not to the new alignment, not to the gazetted alignment but far away from the two, and we came back to a new alignment at kilometer 25. So the work is going and it's moving smoothly. We have paid the total compensation of close to N10 billion," he said.
The highway is estimated to cost the Nigerian government N15.7 trillion.
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