The Federal Government has flagged-off the construction of Section Two of the Lagos-Badagry coastal highway project, starting from the Lekki Deep Seaport, which is the border between Lagos and Ogun State.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, flagged off the construction during an inspection tour of ongoing works on the Lagos Calabar coastal highway and other road projects on the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Dangote Tax Credit Route, and Eleko, among others.
He said: “For Section Two, we are going to have brand new enumerators, so that they will also give us their opinions. It is going to be very, very fast.”
According to him, many properties are going to be saved.
He explained: “We saved all those cables and saved the entire community of Okunaja by not only re-routing, but re-routing entirely through a swamp.
“I hear that some people are calling to protest that we are re-routing to the swamp, that we should go to the gazetted plan and then destroy the cables. I wonder what kind of people we are dealing with. It is very funny. I believe that they will see reason to be very reasonable.”
Umahi, who promised that each section would be given desired attention, said about N10 billion had so far been released for compensation.
He, however, noted that the Federal Government would withhold payment of compensation to affected property owners from Kilometre Seven on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project, due to alteration to the plan.
He said: “We are going to withhold compensation payment from Kilometre Seven because we have re-routed some of the sections, like the White Sand beach.
“I know the indigenes have been praying very well. I think God has answered their prayers because we have also compressed the corridor to 55 effective pavements with 10 train tracks.
“We reduced the 10 tracks from 55 to 20, and we are taking it back also towards the beginning of this project.”
