The Director, Federal Highway, South-South Zone, Godwin Eke, said on Thursday that the Federal Government had built over 300 kilometre roads in the zone.
Eke stated this on the side line of his inspection of the 21.9 Calabar-Itu-Ikot Ekpene road, linking Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
He said: “I can tell you that we have done quite a lot of federal roads in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Edo and the Federal Government is committed to completing the Calabar-Itu –Ikot Ekpene road.
“I have been to all those states. I think we have done more than 300 kilometers of roads and we are still opening up some areas that have not been done before now.
“With time, we will cover the whole of South-South zone.’’
Eke maintained that all the states in the zone had benefitted from the federal government’s massive road construction across the country.
He said: “There is no South-South state that is not benefiting from federal government’s road projects. Government wants to resolve the traffic issues on this corridor.
‘’By developing this access, we want to reduce the travel time to the barest minimum.
“We also want to reduce the number of accidents on the roads and give the communities access to better facilities.”
On funding, he said for the past two to three years, funding had been constant though not enough.
The director added that with constant funding the project would be completed on schedule.
Also speaking, Nkereuwem Ukpong, Controller, Federal Ministry of Works, Akwa Ibom, said that the Akwa Ibom section of the project was 12.2 km while that of Cross River was 9.7 km.
Ukpong said that government had completed payment of compensation for area spanning across 4.3 kimometres to ensure quick completion of the road project.
Kehinde Bakare, the site Engineer of Julius Berger, the contractor, said the project was going on as specified and would be completed on time with proper funding.
He said: “Be rest assured that you are going to have a standard first class road here. That is what I believe people would want to see at the end of it.
“The delivery is not an issue as long as everything goes on well.’’
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