Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

FG mulls bridge to link Rivers free oil, gas zone with others

By Kelvin Ebiri, Port Harcourt
16 December 2019   |   4:05 am
Subject to ratification by the Federal Executive Council, a contract for the construction of a 612-metre bridge to link Ikpokiri Island with the rest of Onne Oil...

Acting Managing Director of the Oil Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), Adekunle Ajayi

Subject to ratification by the Federal Executive Council, a contract for the construction of a 612-metre bridge to link Ikpokiri Island with the rest of Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone as well as reconstruction of a 3.5-kilometre dual carriage into the Notore Industrial City (NIC) is to be executed by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Both Ikpokiri Island and NIC are part of the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone industrial corridor in Rivers State. The bridge and road projects are to further open up the area to more investments.

According to the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), the regulator of the nation’s oil and gas free zones, the NIC and the Ikpokiri Island had secured new international investment commitments worth over $12.5 billion.

The decision on the infrastructure development by the Federal Government to deepen the industrial clusters in the Onne Free Zone follows a memorandum by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Richard Adebayo, to the 11th meeting of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment in Uyo, asking for the building of a bridge to link Ikpokiri Island to the rest of Onne Free Zone and to reconstruct the broken access road to Notore Industrial City (NIC).

The minister’s memo was based on a presentation under the leadership of the Acting Managing Director, Mr. Adekunle Ajayi, to the council by the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority seeking government’s action on the bridge and road projects.

In adopting the document, the council noted that the oil export trade “revenue goals set for the Notore Oil and Gas Free Zone with the targeted investment draw-downs was estimated to worth approximately $5.35 billion in the next five years.”

The process for the award of contract for the construction of the Ikpokiri link bridge was consequent upon the completion of all preliminary engineering studies on the bridge as approved by the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment during its ninth meeting in Sokoto two years ago.

0 Comments