Delta govt committed N458bn to 532 civil engineering projects in six years —  Works’ Commissioner

The Delta state government has announced that it had committed a total of N458billion into 532 civil engineering projects in the state in the last six years, when the state administration was first inaugurated, the State Commissioner for Works, Mr Noel Omodion, has said.

Omodion, who disclosed this at the 2021 budget defence meeting with the state House of Assembly Committee on Works, said that the sum covered projects that included highways, urban and rural roads, drainage structures, bridges and road rehabilitation/maintenance.

He further stated that the projects covered 1,334.84 kms of roads and 727.6 kms of drainage channels across the 25 local government areas of the state.

According to Omodion, while the state government had so far paid a total sum of N265.7 billion for both ongoing and already completed projects, it still required in excess of N184 billion to completely pay off other projects being handled by the state ministry of works.

For the 2022 fiscal year, the Commissioner disclosed that the sum of N105.1 billion was being proposed as Capital Expenditure as against the N69.6 billion approved for the 2021 fiscal year.

He said that the sum of N374.4 billion was being proposed for the 2022 fiscal year, the same figure approved for the ministry in the outgoing fiscal year.

Omodion explained that the proposed Capital Budget for the 2022 fiscal year would be deliberately channelled to the completion of ongoing projects in the state, especially the several road projects embarked upon in the three Senatorial districts of the state.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Emeka Nwaobi commended  Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa for his proactive disposition and commitment to infrastructural developments in the State.