By Lydia Chigozie-Ngwakwe

The Federal Government says Nigeria’s side of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project is a 79km stretch starting from Eric Moore in Lagos State and ending at Seme Border.

The Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Mrs Olukorede Kesha, made the clarification on the ongoing six-lane Lagos-Badagry Road project in relation to the proposed Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday, Kesha said that the Lagos-Badagry Expressway formed part of the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway.

“The existing project on Lagos-Badagry Expressway is a project of the Federal Government of Nigeria. For clarity purposes, that road is about 79km, from Eric Moore.”

According to Kesha, the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway is 1,028km.

The federal controller of works said that the 46.2km section of the Nigerian side of the highway project – from Agbara to Seme – had been awarded to a contractor by the Federal Government.

She said that the Okokomaiko to Agbara section was being overseen by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency.

She added that the Eric Moore to Igbo Elerin section, a 10km stretch, was being handled by the Lagos State Government.

Kesha said that the original vision for the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway was a homogeneous 10-lane road with provisions for train and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems.

She said: “I wouldn’t know whether that is still subsisting because it looks like they are looking into that again and having to tell each member-country to do its own.

“What we are doing now may still stay. It may just have an extension, because what we are doing now are three lanes with no service lanes.

“They may add to it, service lanes, and they may add provisions for light rail and BRT corridors so that natives of communities that this road transverses can have the opportunity to board and drop by, using the corridors provided for light rail and BRT.”

She added that light rail and BRT corridors could be incorporated to serve communities on the route.

She told NAN that the right of way of the proposed highway was about 120 metres.

She said that the highway project was still in its design phase.

NAN reports that the design phase will be completed in May after which the construction would begin.

NAN recalls that the Federal Ministry of Works in March held a stakeholder engagement with the armed forces, police, paramilitary and border communities on the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project of the ECOWAS Commission, at Seme Border.

The engagement began at Agbara, where royal fathers, youths, community leaders and others engaged the ECOWAS Commission and the Federal Ministry of Works officials. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Ijeoma Popoola