Second Niger bridge for 2013, says Onolomemen

The Minister of Works, Mr Mike Onolememen in Abuja on Thursday, said the ground breaking ceremony for the second Niger bridge would  take place in the third quarter of 2013.  
Onolememen said this during budget defence with the House of Representatives committee on works.
He said the ministry was pursuing all the processes judiciously as it was committed to accomplishing the project. 
According to him, the project will be executed under the Private-Public-Partnership (PPP), where the Federal Government will contribute 30 per cent and the concessionaires 70 per cent.  
" There are about two to three milestones on the second Niger bridge and the project is on PPP basis.
"Government will contribute 30 per cent  while the concessionaires will bring 70 per cent, " he said. 
Onolememen said a total of N183 billion had been proposed for the ministry.
He said the budget was aimed at completing all ongoing projects. 
He said that out of the N199 billion appropriated to the  ministry  in 2012, N73 billion representing, 51 per cent had so far been released. 
Onolomemen added that N540 million was also released for overhead between Jan and oct. 
Earlier, Rep. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi (PDP-Enugu), the chairman of the committee, promised that the budget would be critically looked into by the committee and appropriate recommendations would be made to the House.
He said the committee was not pleased with the state of roads in the country and advised the minister to step up efforts in monitoring of projects.