CONSTRUCTION giant, Julius Berger is set to resume work on its projects in some areas of the Niger Delta. At the end of a meeting between governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and officials of the German firm yesterday the company gave assurances that it would resume work on its fly over project at Eleme junction in the state.
It would be recalled that the company temporarily withdraw its services from the region after two of its expatriate staff were taken hostage about two months ago while working on the East West road project.
The action of those behind the abduction was widely condemned.
An official of the firm who spoke off camera said discussions with the state Governor was fruitful, and that the company was concluding arrangement to return to site soon.
He said it was not true that Julius Berger was subletting any of its contract in the state to a sub-contractor as recently reported in the media, and assured that as a responsible company with a high delivery reputation, the company would return to site to conclude her contractual obligation.
Meanwhile, the state executive council is to begin tour of the 23 local government areas in the state to ascertain the developmental challenges in specific in all parts of the state. State Commissioner for Information, Mr Ogbonna Nwuke who made this known to newsmen at the end of a state cabinet meeting said information from the tour would guide development of next year�s budget.
Mr. Nwuke who said the local government tour would begin next week, noted that during the tour, members of the Executive Council would interact with the people and receive direct inputs to be included in the 2009 budget estimates.
He explained that the tour would afford the state government the opportunity to interface with the local people and see the extent to which policies and programmes of government are being implemented in the LGAs, and their impact on the people.
The Information Commissioner also hinted that the state government has adopted a major town planning strategy for the purpose of developing the state, where all Ministries are expected to submit developmental projections that would run for the next four years, in order to plan pro-actively for sustainable development.