Former Minister of Power Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola on Thursday urged Lagos State government to prioritise completion of the blue rail line.
He said the urgent delivery of the project will help decongest traffic and serve as template for the development of the remaining five lines aimed at taking the face of transportation planning in the state.
He spoke at the fourth lecture series of the Lagos State Traffic Radio at the Radio House, Agidingbi, Ikeja, where he was the lead speaker.
Fashola, as a former governor of the state, was the actualiser of the traffic radio.
Speaking on the theme: Lagos beyond roads: the intermodal transport option, Fashola said though funding may pose a challenge, government must prioritise its programmes and policies to make transportation meaningful to the people.
”Until the government achieves the desire to open up the rail transportation, the road would continue to carry the major bulk of the need for movement of people and services.
“The responsibility would be on the government therefore to maintain all the road networks to make the them passable and usable to motorists,” he said.
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Fashola, who disclosed his administration would have test run the blue rail before it was consumed by the political manoeuvring in 2015, added that his government has taken delivery of four coaches that can take 1,200 passengers at each movement.
He also challenged the government to develop the BRT system and link all the five divisions by the critical public transportation system.
He also advocated for urgent implementation massive deployment of LASTMA officials to all critical roads, the resurfacing of all the major road networks, especially those that focuses in the central spine of the state and transport education.
”Let the state government through the Ministry of Education take the Highway codes and the traffic laws of the state and develop a curriculum from primary to secondary and the university that will teach the younger generation transport education.
“This is the only way to make the generality of the people aware that the road is a shared asset and the responsibility to keep it save is not that of the government alone,” Fashola added.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu assured the government is keen at developing all the modes of transportation and deploying them to the safe, affordable, and comfortable movement of people, goods and service from one point to the other.
Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Deputy Governor Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said government is committed to the reduction of cars on the roads.
Sanwo-Olu, who expressed concerns at the state of roads, assured that officials of the public works corporation will swing into action and embark on aggressive palliation of all road networks immediately the rain subsides.
He said all the three bitumen plants at Ojodu, Imota and Badagry are all functional and will be deployed simultaneously to tackle repairs from all ends of the state.
He assured the state will continue to collaborate with the federal government to deliver real dividends to Lagosians, citing the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the construction of the red line light rail, and the reconstruction of the Airport road as some of the infrastructural projects that signposts such collaborations.
