Lagos To Serve Removal Notices On Structures Within Right-of-Way Of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Project

The Lagos State government has said it would serve removal notices on structures within the Right of Way (RoW) of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project.

Upon expiration of the notices, the state said removal of the affected structures would commence.

This was disclosed in a public notice by the state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, which was signed by the Permanent Secretary, Engr. Oluwole Sotire.

The state appealed to occupiers of identified structures to cooperate by removing their property from the RoW to enable a successful execution of the project.

The notice partly read: “The Lagos State Government is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Works for the realisation of the Lagos Calabar Coastal Road Project, the main objective of which is to unlock potentials of coastal communities in line with international standards and in conformity with the THEMES Agenda of the Lagos State Government.

“Consequently, the Lagos State Govemment, through the Office of Physical Planning, will serve statutory notices on the affected structures within the approved Right of Way of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, while the removal of encumbrances will be undertaken at the expiration of the notices.

“The Lagos State Government is therefore using this medium to appeal to owners/occupiers of identified structures to cooperate by moving them away from the Right of Way of the said road as may be required for the successful execution of the project

“For clarity, the Right of Way of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road covers the entire 103km stretch within Lagos State, from Ahmadu-Bello Way through several coastal communities to the Lagos-Ogun boundary, Ode-Omi.”

Affected owners who have compensation claims are required to forward Certified True Copy of title document of property within the said RoW, approved planning permit for the affected buildings and any other relevant document in respect of their property.

“These documents should be forwarded to the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Lands Bureau, Block 13 & 14, the Secretariat, Alausa, Ikaja, not later than 7 (Seven) days after serving Statutory Notices, before the commencement of enumeration and removal of structures that fall within the Right of Way,” the notice added.

Recall that the federal government early this month announced it had begun the construction of the 700km road project.

This was about a week after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a contract worth N1.067trn for the construction of the first phase of the highway.

The road connects nine states, with two spurs leading up north.

According to the Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, the coastal highway would be constructed using concrete technology and would start from Lagos through the Lekki Deep Seaport, to Ogun State, Ondo State, Delta State, Bayelsa State, Rivers State, Akwa Ibom State and ends in Cross River State.

He said, “They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometres from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilised a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometres of section one of the phase.

“These repairs are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under-bridge works.

“At the Third Mainland Bridge, we have three or four critical elements to be rehabilitated. The first one is the deck, and the deck is about 11 kilometres. That is a dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC. They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded. Before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and the asphalting.

“But that is not all our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the lights with solar lights, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and then we are going to put CCTV cameras both on top and under the bridge to check insecurity and illegal mining of sand, which is causing scouring on the piles and the pipe bits.”