Mr Charles Okongor, the Project Coordinator of Cross River Rural Asset and Mobility Project has blamed the delay in the completion of 474 rural roads projects in the state to poor topography.
Okongor told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar that Cross River had peculiar environmental challenges which continued to hamper all-year-round construction works.
He said that the situation had necessitated contract variations on most projects, adding that it had also become impossible to meet the June 2013 African Development Bank (ADB) deadline for the completion of the projects.
He explained that the CR-RAMP was a collaboration programme between the Cross River Government and ADB, noting that the cost of the rural road projects was N21.5 billion.
Okongor said that the state government contributed N13.3 billion, while ADB put in N7.1 billion.
He said that about 65 per cent of the funds had already been spent, adding, however, that the contract sum did not consider the challenges caused by the terrain.
“Cross River is a forest zone and heavy rainfall has remained our major challenge, impeding road works.
“Here, rainfall is almost every month of the year and there are certain jobs you cannot do during the rains, especially earth works.”
He added that the flood arising from the heavy rainfall in 2011 and 2012 also affected the progress of work on the projects, saying that some of the sites were situated in flood-prone areas.
He said that Bekwara Local Government Area and Obanliku Local Government Area were among areas with the worst topography in the state.
Okongor, however, said that the projects were approaching 55 per cent level of completion, adding that ADB was aware of the situation.
“The ADB team was here recently and we briefed the team about the impossibility of completing the job on schedule and the team members said they will brief their management and get back to us.”