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Works on Abuja Auto Village to Commence Soon
The plan by the Federal Capital Territory Administration to relocate car dealers operating along Kubwa Express Way to Dakwa district along Suleja road has been perfected, as the Abuja Investment Company Limited, AICL, Multigrade Group and Home Builds Limited, United Kingdom will commence construction work of the proposed N126 billion Abuja Automotive Village in the next 45 days.
Construction work is expected to commence on the 201 hectare of land located in two months time and is expected to last for 28 months, our correspondent authoritatively gathered.
When completed the automotive village would have a manufacturing factory, plant to produce structural insulated panels (SIPs), Q panel and prefabricated steel frame structures to ensure speedy construction as well as cost effective construction.
The Autmotive village is to be undertaken by the three partners under Public Private Partnership while Multigrade Group is to supervise the whole project.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Multigrade Group, Alhaji Lawal Abubakar disclosed that the three partners have made adequate fund available to start the project, noting that all the parties to the project have fulfilled their obligations and are ready to mobilise to site in the next 45 days.
He explained that the idea to have a central automotive village in the FCT was first conceived by his company about eight years ago but only came to reality last year when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed last by the three parties to the project.
“The project would last for a period of 28 months from when the ground breaking is done and would provide a business park layout service to the automotive trade and provide a one-stop market for traders in automobile industries, related and supportive trades”.
The Multigrade boss assured that adequate security measures would be put in place to ensure safety of goods and cash of the dealers at the village, adding that the FCT Administration which is a partner in the business will also take responsibility for provision of adequate security.
“I am an investor and I take security serious. I expect that government will make adequate provision for security because these people deal with raw cash and there is the need to secure these people who pay heavily into government coffers,” he said.
However, the car dealers have insisted that the new site must be made conducive before the relocation will take place, stressing that successive administration has taken such steps in the past and failed.
Barrister Hamza Abdul, chairman Motor Dealers Association, FCT chapter noted; “They have shown us the site and like every other project, work must commence from the site. This is not the first time a minister is showing us a site. We saw one at Tunga many years back. They also show us another site at Dei Dei and this is the third site, but you can see that it is not convenient even for us to drive in. there has to be access road and level ground for us to display our cars. We are not quarrelling with the minister for his effort to keep the city clean, but the environment has to be made conducive. We are ready to move in if the environment is conducive for us. Our business is not the type you run in the bush. So they have to clear the site, create one access road, provide security before you start asking people to move.”
Abdul further said “We have had several meetings with minister’s representatives and they keep emphasizing that they automobile village to be like what is obtainable in developed countries like Japan, but they forget that this people have long term plan. That is why you find banks, police station and so on in their auto village. They did not just move in 21 days like our case in Nigeria.”
In his response, a Director in Abuja Investment Company, Ibrahim Aliyu assured the auto dealers that the FCT Administration will do what is required to make the place habitable before the developers will continue work on the site.
To this end, the minister, Senator Bala Mohammed has inaugurated a 9-Man Committee to look into the emerging problems of car dealers taking over the Murtala Mohammed Expressway.
While inaugurating the Committee, the minister noted that turning the entire place into car mart is unacceptable; as such action has contributed to defacing the environment.
Mohammed emphasised that regulations must be respected and enforced; insisting that such places are meant to be buffer zones where trees would be re-planted to improve the aesthetic of that area in consonance with the desire of the Abuja Master Plan.
He tasked the Committee to find a lasting solution to that perennial problem especially now that provision had been made in the 2010 budget to replace the fell trees as a result of its on-going rehabilitation and expansion to 10 lanes.
The Minister said that apart from the problem of car dealers, the terms of reference of the Committee is also how to permanently remove the mechanic colonies within the Federal Capital City to the sites earmarked for them in the Abuja Master Plan.
The Committee which has two weeks to submit its report is to be chaired by the Chief of Staff to the FCT Minister, Architect Baba Muhammad-Dadi.
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