Jigawa to spend N8.3 Billion to reconstruct bridges, roads damaged by flood
By: Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
The Jigawa state government has voted over N8.3 billion for the repairs and reconstruction of roads, bridges and culverts damaged by flood across the state.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director, Jigawa State Roads Maintenance Agency (JIRMA), Eng. Abbas Muhammad Lalai in an exclusive interview with The Syndicate in Dutse.
He said, “The state government has opened tender for the repairs and reconstructions of some of the damaged bridges, culverts and roads washed away by flood disaster in the state”.
“This is in line with the Malam Umar Namadi led administration’s commitment to restore the road into use for social and ecomical activities in the state.
“Just last one or two weeks, tender for the projects was opened at the ministry of Works and Transport for new roads to be constructed. This agency has five to six projects for repair and reconstruction of bridges, culverts and roads.
“Those projects are the ones affected by the flood disaster of 2022 and some few of this year. Presently the contracts had been approved and awarded to the winning contractors that participated in the tenders advertised by the government”.
According to Abbas, the contractors are about to mobilise to sites as government works for their mobilisation fees.
He said that the projects would be speeded to enable people have easy access to transport themselves and their farm products.
He listed the affected roads to include the Eastern Byepass started from Area, Baturiya, Chanceno, and Kadira to Guri.
“There is Madobi, Katanga to Dangoli, then Koriya-Gwiwa road, Zakira to Kano state border to Ringim, and Gujungu to Hadejia where more culverts would be constructed after the repairs to give the water enough access to pass, and the Gwaram to Basirika road where two bridges collapsed. All these during the 2022 flood”.
Abbas said in 2024, the heavy rains have affected so many roads across the state, flooding some roads and washing away many, including bridges and culverts.
According to the managing director, the agency has been monitoring and assessing the level of damages and analysing the report to determine what each needs and make recommendation to government.
“We did some already and submitted to to the Directorate of Due Process and Projects Monitoring to also analysis the cost of the work and make their recommendation to the state government.
“The roads affected by the August flood includes Gwaram road where a bridge was affected, Caichai to Ringim also a bridge affected and Andaza, Tsirma to Aujara which is totally cut off. We have made an emergency work there and provided alternative route.
“Others of the August damaged roads is Birninkudu to Zazuka, there is another road in Gwaram local government area which a dam collapsed and the water washed away the road and destroyed some culverts. These are the ones we visited, we are going to the remaining ones”.
“Initially our 2024 budget was N2.7 billion, but governor has increased it to over N5.7 billion in a recent approved supplementary budget to take care of the works,” Abbas said.
