Third Mainland Bridge To Be Closed Month End – Fashola

Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, has said on Friday that the Third Mainland Bridge will be closed for repair at the end of the month.

The Federal Government, according to him, will used the Eid holidays to start the repairs on the road, where it is believed that traffic will be light on the bridge due to people travelling out of the state for the festival.

The Minister made this known at the City Hall in Lagos Island during his interaction with the members of the public.

“The Third Mainland Bridge will be shut at the end of this month. The specific dates I will get our media people to deal with so that nobody will go and report that it is going to be shut for 27 months (laugh). We are going to shut it first for I think at least three days.

“Those days will be in August for inspection, just to be sure that what we saw when we were procuring has not been materially altered.

When it is going to be shut for repairs, we will come back to let the state government and the citizens know. Between now and that period, we expect to have started construction work on Apapa-Oworonsoki road.” Fashola said.

The Former Lagos State governor, added that the Federal government is currently doing maintenance work on some bridges all over the country to keep them in shape.

He said N270 billion were estimated for those bridges.

While speaking on power, Fashola admonished distribution companies to put more effort in getting electricity to the end users.

He added that there have been an increased in the volume of power produced in the country, from 4000 megawatts to 7000 megawatts.

He explained that government on its part has done all required in ensuring regular power supply across the country.

“Power generation has moved from 4,000mw to 7,000mw. The responsibility of now bringing power to your homes lies now with the Distribution Companies,” he said.

The minister said power plants across the country are being engineered to increase power generation, noting that “Azura will give us 459mw, while Kaduna is bringing 215mw, 2 turbines are already being tested. There’s 240mw in Afam and ready to go. If we add these three, that’s roughly 1,000mw new power generation to the grid.”

The minister said the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is the body authorised to deal with the tariff issues, when he was asked about the increase in the tariff by the DisCos