Oscarline Onwuemenyi
18 May 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has ordered contractors handling transmission projects for Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPCH) projects across the country to go back to sites and ensure speedy completion of the projects, even as he promised all their complaints would be resolved within a reasonable time frame.
The Minister, who made this appeal at a meeting with power contractors in Abuja, further disclosed that the purpose of the meeting was to share the concerns of the contractors handling various transmission projects with a view to assisting them.
Fashola further revealed that the meeting was also to ensure that those who abandoned their projects are immediately mobilised to go back to sites.
The Minister received a briefing from the representative of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), on the status of their projects such as issues on evacuation on the Eastern axis, Alaoji- Ikot Ekpene 300KVA double circuit line, and the Switching Station at Ikot Ekpene.
Fashola also received a status report of the various on-going TCN projects across the country after which he agreed with the contractors on the submission of a list of projects that have 70 per cent and above completion status, but for which provisions were not made in the 2016 budget approved for TCN, to his office.
Also to be submitted is a list of contractors who have assured the meeting about the completion of their projects before the end of 2016 and relevant information about their projects and a list of contractors who have completed and handed over projects and details of such projects but are yet to be paid.
Responding, the Group President, Skipper Nigeria, Jitender Sachdeva, who spoke on behalf of the contractors, commended the Minister ,for reconvening the meeting, as the outcome will lead to increased power generation in Nigeria, as it would create employment opportunities for the teeming youth.
Sachdeva said that the administration of President Buhari is committed to increased power generation through the completion of transmission projects across Nigeria as power produced and not evacuated would become useless, hence, the group assured him that the increased power which will lead to improved supply in the country.
