National Assembly building project to gulp N52billion

Nigeria’s National Assembly is undertaking a world-class permanent site for legislative studies, located in the FCT, Abuja.

The building project which will gulp N52.031billion will be completed around November this year. At completion, the edifice will be named the National Institute for Legislative Studies. At the moment, construction works are in peak in a project having its contract conditions as design and build re-measurement, with a completion period of 24 months.

Coming with the complex are convention centres, libraries, administrative buildings, main reception/entrance lobby, hostel with recreational centres, external infrastructure, power house to mention a few.

According to the Guardian, going by the project brief, the main gate, power reception, library, lecture threatres, and administrative building were said to have been completed already; as testing and commissioning of Phase 1, convention centre, infrastructure and works would be completed between October and November 2015.

While the lead contractor is the Julius Berger, Lambert, Energo, Frerk, and Biogest are handling electrical, mechanical, generators and sewage treatment plant respectively. Also, Berkefeld, Strhmann, Stim, Abumet and AFP are providing water treatment plant, natural stone, steel works, aluminum works and doors with furniture in that order.

Speaking recently on the project, the Director General of the National Institute for Legislative Studies, Dr. Ladi Hamalai, said the institute was poised to transit from a research and knowledge management center of the National Assembly to a capacity development hub in the West Africa sub region.

According Hamalai, “The rational was to ensure that the institute of such world class also has a befitting world class headquarters, which will have the necessary office space, training space and research facilities. All these are very necessary in any institute of such caliber.

Basically, the headquarters has what is called the core building. Within the core building is the library, which is unique. It is a three-floor building that has 20 offices for researchers.

These offices will also be extended to international institutions that are interested in collaborating with the institute. Hamalai added that the headquarters also has the administrative block and the 1000-seater facility auditorium, as well as the lecture complex. “There are four lecture rooms of 50, 100, 150 and 200 sitting capacity, respectively.

These are the core buildings. There is also the reception hall. Apart from this, there is also the 100-room hostel, which would be more or less a three star hotel that will support participants with their various training programmes.”

Futuristically, she observed that some of the benefits of having such a world-class structure in Abuja for the use of the legislature, Nigeria and Nigerians would be quite monumental, considering the fact that bringing the best international training institutes like the John Hopkins and one or two others with the view of collaborating with them in the areas of training and research cannot be quantified.

The Project Manager and Development Consultant, Mr. Zingak Gomwalk, says that the project is situated on a plot size of 8.12 hectares at Piwoyi along Airport Road, Abuja.He added that the land gently slopes in a Northwestern direction with a rocky outcrop towards the Northeastern portion.