The federal and Lagos State government on Thursday disclosed that about 800 houses might be demolished to pave way for the construction of the much-publicised 37 kilometres Fourth Mainland Bridge.
They said a lot of efforts had been carried out to reduce the number of affected houses from about 9,000 to less than 800.
This was even as the Lagos State government assured residents that affected property owners would be adequately compensated in spite of the prevailing economic circumstances in the country.
They stated that all the concerned stakeholders would be satisfactorily considered in the execution of the project.
The Minister of Environment, Mamoud Abubakar, who was represented by a Director from the Ministry, James Kolawole, stated this at the Environmental Social Impact Assessment stakeholders scoping workshop with Federal Ministry of Environment on the Fourth Mainland Bridge.
He said there should be sincere commitment on the part of Lagos State government on the compensation on the means of livelihood to be affected.
He said that project would have about 16 alignments but the best alignment had been selected, sressong that the government had done everything possible to minimize the negative impacts of the project on the people and the environment.
“There was an alignment that will affect about 9000 structures along the corridor but we have reviewed it and gone for the alignment that will affect about 795 houses instead of the one that will take more houses.
“It is an ongoing thing on how best to minimize the negative impact,” Kolowole said.
He said the fourth Mainland Bridge project was about the people and long overdue as it would boost economic growth and enhance international trade.
He added that there was need to take cognisance of both positive and negative impacts of the Fourth Mainland bridge on stakeholders to ensure that all the knotty and technical issues were addressed in order not to compromise the future of coming generations.
Speaking on the multi-million naira project, the State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development said that the bridge which would connect Lagos and Ogun State would link through the Abraham Adesanya in Lagos and Sparklight Estate near the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Ogun State. (Leadership)
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