Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed of Bauchi State has inaugurated the construction of a 19km Liman Katagum-Luda-Lekka rural access road in Zungur District of Bauchi local government area of the state.
Inaugurating the project on Monday, Bala said the road construction is part of his administration’s collective efforts to provide access roads in rural areas to boost agricultural marketing sustainabity.
The project which is under the World Bank-assisted Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) worth N2.4 billion, according to him would be completed in 18 months. He said plans are underway to connect the road with Gudum in the industrial area of the Bauchi metropolis covering a length of about 24 km that is currently undergoing detailed engineering designs.
Governor Bala Mohammed said under the arrangement, the 19Km Liman Katagum – Luda – Lekka road would be constructed with a 6-meter double coat surface dressing, 1-meter shoulders on both sides, Box culverts of various sizes and numbers together with other complementary cross drainages.
He noted with delight that the RAAMP project has packaged a bundle of a carefully selected range of interventions that will spread across the geopolitical zones of the state, to be delivered within the implementation period which covers the provision of six Agro-Logistic centres.
Bala recalled that the five-year RAAMP project is to be implemented in 18 states of the federation including Bauchi, in collaboration with the World Bank through contributions from the International Development Association (IDA) to the tune of $280m and the French Development Agency (AFD) to the tune of $230m.
He said the 18 participating states of the Federation are to contribute about $65m and noted that the state government has since provided the needed resources particularly, the N1.4 billion counterpart funding for implementation of activities under the Project, by the approved Plans and Budget.
The governor expressed satisfaction that Bauchi was amongst the first three in the 18 participating states in the federation that fulfilled the Legal Covenant of passing the Laws to establish the State Rural Access Road Authority (RARA) and the State Road Fund (SRF) with an equally strong commitment to implement the Laws as enshrined.
In a keynote address, the RAAMP project National Coordinator, Engineer Aminu Bodiga Mohammed disclosed that Bauchi state was the first to provide its counterpart contribution for the implementation of the project in the state.
