By Francis Sadhere
The Director in charge of Finance and Cooperate Services, Warri Industrial Business Park, Mr. Emmanuel Ojakovo has reassured the public that the park, contrary to the views of some people, was not a white elephant project.
He said that the park would become operation by 2014, stressing that all necessary arrangements for the execution of the projects in the park had been concluded.
Mr. Ojakovo stated this recently during the official opening ceremony of the Delta Trade Fair 2013 holding at Osubi, near Warri, Delta State.
In an interview with our correspondent, Mr. Ojakovo, stressed the process of setting up an industrial park was a very tedious one, noting that all necessary planning had to be put in place before any execution of projects could be carried out.
According to him, the feasibility study of the park took them a year to be completed, adding that the master plan for the entire project which was carried out by a world-class consultant, Jeron of Singapore, had also been concluded.
He also said that they had to involve world-class consultants in the project because they wanted to benchmark the Warri Industrial Park with the best industrial Parks in the world.
“Concerning this project, all plans to take off this project have been concluded. We started with the feasibility study, and what we have also done was that because we wanted to benchmark this with the best industrial park in the world, we have used world class consultants to ensure that we are getting the very best,” he said.
On the Environmental Impact Assessment, (EIA) Mr. Ojakovo said that the assessment had also been completed, adding that the EIA was done by another world-class consultant, Fubu Engineering Ltd.
“The Environmental Impact Assessment has been done and it was done by Fubu and it has been completed. So everything that we need in terms of development planning for the park has been done and concluded and now we in the execution stage,” he said.
He added that; “The feasibility study was done by KPMG International and it has been completed. We did a master plan of this project which was carried out by Jeron of Singapore, they are one of the best in the world. Jeron of Singapore also did the front end engineering which is the basic engineering design for the entire park. This has also been completed.”
He stated that meetings were held at the Government House, Annex, Warri, were all those involved in the EIA were brought together to discuss the modalities to be taken in the execution of projects in the park.
“All the processes that were required, including the publication and the meetings with the communities and all the stake holders have been done. Meetings were held in Government House in Warri here on the environmental impact assessment.
“We brought everyone that was required to be there; Federal Ministry of Environment, all the communities and the stakeholders were all there. We had radio and TV publications in Delta and other National dailies in terms of the EIA,” he added.
Speaking on the transparency of the process, Mr. Ojakovo said that the all processes were transparent, adding that everything about the process had been documented for everybody to see.
“There is a report and all the things that needed to be taken care of in terms of environmental issues were documented in the report. Everything has been done and had been documented. The Federal Ministry of Environment and State Ministry of Environment, the communities and all stakeholders were involved in the process,” he said.
The Warri Industrial Business Park is and infrastructure project being planned as a mixed use development for industrial, commercial and residential use in Warri.
It is on approximately 329 hectares and will provide world-class phusical ans social infrastructure for businesses in oil and gas, maritime, manufacturing and logistics. It will offer attract incentives as a Free Zone with its competitive advantage resting on its strategic proximity to sources of natural gas and a vibrant petroleum industry.
The Warri Industrial Business Park’s access to a multi-modal transportation system and network provides ease of supply chain management for imports and exports.
