Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, on Friday inaugurated 15 heavy duty construction equipment worth N550million dedicated to the construction of a highway from Ngala to Kala-Balge local government areas through Rann, the latter’s headquarter in the northern part of the
state.
The equipment include sets of heavy lifting cranes, graders, excavators, tar boilers, bulldozers, smooth, steel and pneumatic rollers, shift foot compactors, water tankers and hundreds of spare parts, all recently
acquired by the Borno State Road Maintenance Agency, which has been boosted with series of equipment under a new management led by a civil engineer, Ahmed
Satomi.
Shettima described communities in Kala-Balge as the most marginalised of the 774 local government areas in the country.
He said the geographic location of the local government along the shores of the Lake Chad, which has a difficult topography, has made successive governments in the Borno State to neglect the council, a development, which he said had reduced the area to a near outcast.
The governor noted that due to lack of roads, it’s impossible to access many communities in Kala-Balge during the rainy season.
This he said, not only threatened socio-economic mobility, but also had made the council vulnerable to security hostage situation.
Governor Shettima then directed BORMA to immediately deploy the equipment to focus on completing the road within the year, promising to liaise with security agencies to get military collaboration to support deployments and construction
works.
The Agency’s Chairman, Engineer Satomi, told the governor to expect the completion of all earth works within the next five months, after which the roads will be
tarred.
He promised to deliver the road before Governor Shettima completes his tenure in May 2019.