Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has through his series of tweets via his official Twitter account, @jidesanwoolu, weekend, given a clear picture of what Lagosians should expect if elected governor of the State come next year.
Responding to series of twits from Lagos residents on how to improve transportation in the state on Sunday, he averred that “Our plan is to keep them running and improve on the BRT infrastructure and road furniture. Most of the buses are old and need replacements or adequate maintenance, we will work with the franchise owners to bring in new buses to serve the routes.”
Speaking on the opportunities created by the e-taxi-hailing industry, Sanwo-Olu noted that a thorough review was necessary, as stakeholders were being engaged.
According to him, “The e-hailing industry is a fast growing pillar of the transportation industry. It definitely needs to be holistically reviewed. Multi-stakeholder engagements are already in the works to help us understand how to effectively leverage the pros and prune the cons.”
On how his administration will tackle the intractable challenge of Apapa area traffic congestion, Sanwo-Olu technically shifted the responsibility of pursuing tanker drivers parking on bridges to the Federal Government and confessed that the Federal Government is fixing the road and bridge in Apapa.
In his further responses, he said, “The reconstruction of the Apapa-Oshodi-Isolo-Oworonsoki (expressway) up to Toll Gate at Alausa is underway. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing about three weeks ago flagged off the project.
“The second-level solution is what the state government is working on with the Federal Government and that is building a trailer park that can take 5,000 trailers.”
Sanwo-Olu added that the park would have all the amenities that would make life convenient for the drivers.
“We will also work with the (Nigerian) Ports Authority to have a call-up system where trailers will only be called when the containers they want to take are ready.
“What they would do is move in, pick up their goods and leave. The same would also apply to tankers that load petroleum products. There is a concentration of depots in Apapa. One of the medium and long-term solutions will be to decongest that corridor,” he added.
On the rail projects under construction, Sanwo-Olu revealed that he recently travelled through Lagos-Badagry Expressway and observed the hellish trips made by residents on the corridor.
He said, “I drove through the Iyana-Iba corridor last week and I admit a lot needs to be done on the route to ease the challenges. The Orile-Mile 2-Badagry expressway project needs to be accelerated and it’s a front burner topic.
“The Blue Line rail project from Okokomaiko-CMS is nearing completion. We will work to complete it and get the rolling stock to make it operational ASAP. There is also a robust plan for the Red Line rail project from Agbado-CMS.
“The rail transportation system is crucial to us. Accelerating its development whilst leveraging even better the existing infrastructure is one of our focal points to address the transportation challenges we face,” Sanwo-Olu averred.
