Lagos-Calabar highway intact, FG to integrate additional 400km of East-West Road — Umahi
The federal government plans to integrate an additional 400 kilometres of the East-West Road into the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, Minister of Works Dave Umahi has said.
Umahi disclosed this on Monday while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Abuja, dismissing suggestions on social media that the 750-kilometre coastal highway had been abandoned or diverted.
He said the government had sought Tinubu’s approval to incorporate the additional stretch, which runs through parts of Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states, to improve connectivity across the Niger Delta.
The minister insisted that the coastal highway remained intact and that the proposed integration would not amount to abandoning or changing its planned alignment.
“Nobody has abandoned the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway,” Umahi said. “The 750-kilometre coastal highway is intact and cannot be changed, and nobody has the powers to change it, because it’s already designed and it’s ongoing.”
He explained that the proposed integration was necessary because parts of the existing East-West Road were constructed below flood level and had suffered damage.
Umahi cited recent damage to sections of the road in Delta State, where he said the state governor had intervened, adding that similar challenges existed in Edo State.
The minister said surveyors and designers were already working on routes through Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states to advance the coastal highway project.
