The Lagos State House of Assembly has inspected the ongoing 37-kilometre Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line project.
The Chairman, House Committee on Transportation, Mr Temitope Adewale made this known during an one-the-spot assessment of the project between Oyingbo to Iju in Lagos on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu on August 2022 had assured that the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line project would be completed before the end of 2022 as earlier.
Sanwo-Olu said the first phase of the standard gauge line will run from Agbado to Oyingbo with eight stations, and will reduce travel times by two hours.
A planned second phase will extend the line to Iddo, adding another three stations.
Adewale (APC-Ifako/Ijaiye I) expressed satisfaction on the quality of the work done, disclosing that most of the difficult tasks had been completed.
He said that the red line project was expected to transport not less than 500,000 passengers daily once completed before the end of the year.
The lawmaker noted that this amounts to about 3.5 million passengers weekly and 15 million passengers in a month.
Adewale said the project showed that the state government understood the need to boost the transportation sector to ease daily movement of residents.
He said: “Remember that the Speaker, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, during the presentation of the 2023 budget, commended Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the purchase of trains and his zeal to complete the project.
“So today, by the powers conferred on us by the constitution, we decided to conduct an oversight on the Ministry of Transportation and to be precise, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
“We have visited the railway and five stations in Iju, Agege, Ikeja, Yaba and now Oyingbo where the rolling stocks or trains are parked, contrary to what we have been hearing that the trains are not here.
“From what we have seen so far, the project is approaching completion and having spoken with the contractors, we are sure the governor will do the commissioning as projected, believing that the possibility is true and positive.”
Adewale said the train service became necessary because the Lagos master plan indicated the need to inculcate it and increase passengers using mass transit.
On his part, Mr Bisi Yusuff (APC-Alimosho I), a lawmaker, described the project as the result of good leadership and continuity in government.
Yusuff noted that the project was initiated by Sen. Bola Tinubu, the APC Presidential Candidate and built upon by subsequent administrations.
He urged the people of Lagos to vote massively for the APC so they would continue to enjoy dividends of democracy.
Earlier, Mr Olasunkanmi Okusaga of the Directorate of Transport, promised that the project would be delivered at the targeted time. (NAN)