The federal government has assured commuters that their years of suffering on the deplorable Calabar-Itu highway will be a thing of the past within the next two months.

Works minister David Umahi gave the assurance during an inspection of the highway on Saturday.

The minister said that as part of the effort to ensure commuters enjoy a seamless journey on the highway, Hitech Construction Company would be drafted in to carry out immediate palliative work.

He explained that the need to draft in Hitech was to fill the gap left by a “stop work” order issued to a contractor for failing to meet the deadline. He acknowledged that the ministry made mistakes by failing to conduct due diligence on some contractors who were later awarded contracts for sections of the highway.

“I think giving the job to a Raycon is a mistake on the side of the ministry, and we admit the failure on our side because we did not do proper due diligence to know whether a Raycon has the capacity to do this job.

“This job is definitely beyond the capacity of Raycon, and the kind of equipment they deployed may not be their fault. But this is one of the worst roads in this country. Just like we did on a section of the road, we are again inviting Hitech to intervene on this 9.7km of the Raycon section, and they are going to be working day and night to put the place in order.

“This is going to be an emergency procurement, but they need to start work immediately. What I am seeing here is not desirable, and this is not what Mr President wants for our people. He wants our people to travel safely and for travel time to be shortened,” he said.

The minister explained that Hitech would also be engaged to do the permanent work on the sections they wouldn’t be carrying out palliatives on.

The Calabar-Itu road, constructed in the 70s, is the only road connecting Cross River and Akwa Ibom and has been in a bad state for over a decade.

Approval was granted by then-President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstruct and dualise the highway in December 2021 through the tax credit scheme. The scheme was to cost NNPC N185 billion for the construction and dualisation.

However, due to the collapse of the scheme, work on the reconstruction had progressed slowly, leaving commuters with a bitter taste on the highway.

(NAN)