Lagos State Government yesterday gave account of the progress recorded in the last 200 days of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, during an interactive session with journalists, said the state government will be hosting a live ceremony on Wednesday, to open the bids from prospective firms that expressed interests in the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge.
Omotoso added that “the government will be announcing the bids at the ceremony, which will officially set process in motion to realize the project.”
He added that local and international construction giants expressed interest in the construction of the 37-Kilometre-long fourth Mainland bridge.
He said Lagos State Government had sustained its “aggressive response” to rehabilitating bad roads across the metropolis to ease vehicular movement, noting that about 116 deplorable highways were being fixed by eight construction firms and the Public Works Corporation.
The Sanwo-Olu administration, Omotoso said, is deploying Public Infrastructure Improvement Partnership (PIIP) as a strategy to improve the state’s infrastructure by signing agreements with banks and other private institutions to embark on rehabilitation of adopted roads as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
He said: “I boldly state, here, that the THEMES Agenda of the Sanwo-Olu Government is on course and will be achieved. The speed of projects implementation has now increased, especially since the last 100 days. The intensity is going according to the plan, which is to apply the right treatment at the right time to achieve the desired level of service.
“The government is leveraging the private sector, which controls about 80 percent of the State’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as crucial in the government’s drive to bridging the infrastructure gap and building the smart city of our dream. Access Bank is partnering with the State Government in the upgrading of a network of roads in Oniru under PIIP arrangement.
“To further bring relief to our people, we will be setting the process in place for the construction of Fourth Mainland Bridge. Next Wednesday is the final day for the submission of Expression of Interest; we will be unveiling the process that will lead to the realization of the project on day.”
Omotoso said the government had almost doubled the resources committed to education and healthcare to boost human capital.
Apart from the 149-bed space Maternal and Childcare Centre (MCC) completed in Alimosho, the Commissioner said the Sanwo-Olu administration would be delivering two additional MCCs in Badagry and Epe in the coming weeks.
Omotoso said the Government remained committed to using skill acquisition as a tool of empowerment, stressing that 4,885 youths had graduated from the State’s 17 Skill Acquisition Centres located in all the five divisions of Lagos.
The Commissioner said the State Government had increased funding for schools across state, disclosing that the administration would be deploying technology to strengthen the output from the State-owned schools.
He said: “In line with our promise, the rehabilitation of public schools has begun, following the inauguration of a Special Committee for the purpose. No fewer than 5,000 primary school teachers will be trained to complete the three-pronged education strategy of fixing the infrastructure, fixing the curriculum and fixing the manpower through recruitment, training and development of teachers.
Source: THISDAY
