The Ministry of Works has said that preliminary works will begin on the proposed Abuja-Lagos Superhighway in the year 2024.

This announcement was made on Friday with the project getting a total of N500 million allocation in the proposed budget for 2024.

The proposed document as regards the construction works is awaiting a formal approval from the National Assembly.

The same document has shown that apart from the highway marked ERGP12211937, the Lagos-Port Harcourt coastal highway will also get an allocation of N500 million if the lawmakers do not adjust the sum.

The Works Minister, Senator David Umahi had declared back in September that the proposed 470 kilometres Abuja-Lagos Greenfield superhighway will be completed in 2027.

The former governor of Ebonyi state had also said that the road will last for nothing less than 100 years.

The Ministed added that the highway that will pass through Lagos state, Oyo, Kogi, Ekiti, Ogun, Niger, Kwara and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will be built by a private sector consortium at no cost to the federal government.

Umahi stressed that the superhighway will be tolled to enable the investors to recoup their investment.

He had also explained that plans were underway to make the road a business and industrial corridor with hotels, factories and housing estates, among others, on the route.

He also warned that if the consortium backed out unreasonably, it may have to pay a fine of $10 million. At the moment, Nigerians spend about 14 hours to get to Lagos from Abuja.

Umahi has, however, said that commuters will no longer spend that much again on travelling on that route.

He said they will spend less than five hours on the superhighway when it becomes operational in the next four years.