More coaches for the Blue and Red Rail lines in Lagos will be delivered by year-end, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said yesterday.
He spoke in Beijing, China where he wrapped up a deal with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
According to him, the acquisition of rolling stocks will expand the transportation infrastructure in the state and bring more relief to the people.
He said the state team, through its partners, secured an agreement to get the additional rolling stocks.
During a meeting with the President and management of the CCECC at its headquarters in Beijing, Sanwo-Olu reiterated his administration’s commitment to completing the second phase of the Blue Line rail project and begin commercial operations of the Red Line.
The governor said: “We have made requests for additional rolling stocks for the Red Line and Blue Line. That conversation is ongoing. We have started making payments and hope that because of our commitment, we will get them before the end of the year.
“It would improve the journey experience of our people. It would improve citizens’ appreciation of what the government is doing to reduce transportation pressure in a big city like Lagos.
“With the new rolling stocks, we will have a more predictable journey time; the commuters and passengers would be more committed and we will see an improvement in the quality of lives and reduction of traffic gridlocks in the city”.
Those with the governor at the meeting are: Transportation Commissioner Oluwaseun Osiyemi; Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mrs. Abimbola Akinajo, Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Transportation, Temitope Adewale, his Environment Parastatals counterpart, Rasheed Shabi, among others.
The Lagos team also inspected one of the project sites of the China Railway Construction Group (CRCG) in Beijing, China.
Sanwo-Olu noted that the visit, which he described as a fact-finding mission, was borne out of his government’s plans for the construction of some infrastructural projects and his determination to increase the infrastructure stock of the state, especially in transportation.
