The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday approved N29.4 billion contract for the rehabilitation of the “tricky, steep and dangerous” 15-kilometre 9th Mile section of the Enugu-Onitsha expressway.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the contract, which involved redesigning to manage persistent erosion and other challenges, was retrieved from an earlier contractor for incompetent execution and now awarded to RCC Construction firm already, handling the remaining stretch of the highway.
“We had one memorandum in respect of the 9th Mile section of the Enugu-Onitsha Highway just to disengage the contractor who was previously handling that 15 kilometre section and award it to the contractor that now has the majority of the route, which is RCC.
That section was determined and approved for re-award to RCC so we now have a wholesome strategy to complete that road.“Of course, the 9th Mile section, as you might know, is a very tricky, difficult area; very steep and dangerous, a point of many accidents before, so we have to change the design and do a lot of other alterations in quality to ensure not only the erosion there, but that very good work is done.
“So Council approved that in favour of Messrs RCC for the sum of N29.4 billion. It’s rolled into the existing contract, which I think was for 24 months,” he said.
Meanwhile, the FEC Committee on the implementation of the newly increased Value Added Tax (VAT) presented its report for approval, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has said.
He said all government contracts awarded before the February 1, 2020 date would be treated on the basis of 5% VAT while contracts awarded after February 1 would attract 7.5% new VAT rate.