Abuja – The Chairman, Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P), retired Gen. Martin Agwai, said Federal Government would spend about N84 billion on road projects under the programme in 2014.

Agwai made this known on Wednesday when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

He said that roads to be covered in the expenditure were important ones specially identified by the government, adding that some of the projects were ongoing.

He said that some of the roads were the Port Harcourt-Onitsha-Enugu road which got N11 billion and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway which got N20 billion.

He disclosed that provision for funding the projects was made in the 2014 budget of SURE-P, adding that N10 billion was voted for Shagamu-Ore-Benin highway.

Agwai added that N10.5 billion was voted for Abuja-Lokoja road, while the dualisation of Kano-Maiduguri road got N12.5 billion.

He said that the Federal Government had also committed some money to the building of two important bridges to ease the movement of people across the River Niger.

According to him, the Federal Government voted N10 billion for the ground-breaking of the second River Niger Bridge, but the project will be funded under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) collaboration.

The Chairman said that SURE-P was solely financing the Iweto Bridge, which linked Loko in Nasarawa State with Eweto in Benue state.

He explained that when work of the bridge project was completed, journey from the eastern part of the country to Abuja and North Central would be reduced to about 200 kilometres.

“That project is ongoing and it is solely financed by SURE-P, and it is one of the critical infrastructures that SURE-P is financing,” he said.

He said that SURE-P was also intervening in rail projects in the country, adding that it assisted in the rehabilitation of Lagos-Kano rail line, adding that it was working on the rail line that would link the South-East with Maiduguri.

Agwai also said that SURE-P had earmarked N10 billion to facilitate the completion of ongoing Abuja Light Rail project.

– NAN