The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Lamata

  • LAMATA to meet Dec deadline for BRT project

    The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) has assured Ikorodu residents of its readiness to meet the December deadline for the completion of the N30 billion Mile12-Ikorodu Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) extension.

    The road, LAMATA said, would feature dedicated bus lanes, three inter-change terminals, modern bus depots/garage facilities, fully enclosed bus shelters, step-free and gap-free boarding facilities, adding that it would improve traffic movement on the 13.5 km Ikorodu road corridor.

    At the fifth stakeholders’ meeting on the project in Ikorodu on the outskirts of Lagos, LAMATA’s Managing Director, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, said the road would phase out some U-turns which constitute nightmare to users.

    Mobereola, represented by the Deputy Director of Transport Safety Mr Olajide Oduyoye, said many U-turns would be phased out to pave way for a free flow of traffic and avert the usual gridlock which were brought about by the activities of the commercial bus drivers.

    Mobereola, who was responding to residents’ complaints, said the design of the road makes it difficult for motorists to turn to other sides of the roads because doing so would be unnecessary once the road is completed. He said doing otherwise would create unnecessary bottlenecks, delays and accidents.

    Mobereola who admitted that residents may indeed be going through some stress right now, said once the project is completed, the traffic snarl would disappear.

    He said: “You really don’t need many turning points along this road as some people are agitating, it doesn’t take time to travel through the entire road if there no traffic congestion. It is the ‘go slow’ that makes people want to make a U-turn and this, the project would eliminate once it is completed.”

    He said the government is determined to give the people the best road project and when completed, would lift the standard of living along the corridor.

    The project, which is supported by the World Bank and AgenceFrance Development (AFD), is part of the urban renewal initiatives and ways to further deepen public sector transportation deliverables in the state.

    Meanwhile, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Salawudeen Oyefusi has pleaded that LAMATA urgently resettles the traders displaced along the road to the Sabo market.

    The paramount ruler of the area who was represented by one of his chiefs also caleed for the construction of a pedestrian bridge at Owutu junction of the road to address the threat to lives as the expanded road now constitutes greater risk to residents of the eight communities living around the area.

    He said though the bridge may not have been captured on the project, its construction would push the image of LAMATA as a public-spirited agency, that have the interest and wellbeing of Lagosians at heart.

  • LAMATA moves to address e-payment challenges

    LAMATA moves to address e-payment challenges

    Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) is working with the vendor of the e-ticketing system to resolve identified challenges associated with the payment platform.

    LAMATA, the regulator of the BRT and BFS systems, said it is not unaware of the challenges, which commuters have been experiencing with the use of the Lagos Connect Card, which was introduced in July, last year to improve commuters’ experience using the bus services

    In a statement, the agency said one of the major drawbacks of the system is the significant drop in the operator’s revenue, a development which had seriously affected its operational effectiveness, typified by the non-availability of the payment equipment on all the buses, a situation that has discouraged many users of the bus system.

    The drop in revenue has been linked to slow pick up of the scheme with large number of commuters still using paper tickets thereby making the discount offered on the e-ticket card non-effective.

    This is further worsened by the dishonesty displayed by some commuters who do not pay the correct fares by tapping in and tapping out after they travel short distance while remaining on the bus, thus robbing the operator of the expected revenue.

    According to LAMATA, the drop in revenue has continued to impact on the operator’s operational effectiveness, including deployment and servicing of validators among other responsibilities. This has necessitated the need to review fares for the minority undertaking short journeys.

    As a result, LAMATA has approved an adjustment in the minimum fare paid using the card to N50 during peak period and N45 during off peak period. The cost is still lower than the minimum fares of N70 for the paper tickets. The adjustment is to enable the operator recover cost in order to meet up recurrent expenses and overhead costs.

    LAMATA has assured that the new plan will ensure the fixing of all the identified teething challenges associated with the system which includes dysfunctional bus validators, non-availability of the Lagos Connect card at all stations, absence of bus validator on some buses and inability to top up at all stations, among others.

    In addition, LAMATA is working with the operator to ensure further re-fleeting with new buses by 2014, the refurbishment and upgrade of an agreed number of the existing buses every month and the revamp of the BFS system on the Iyana-Ipaja-Ikotun corridor. The BRT extension project from Mile 12-Ikorodu scheduled to be completed this year will also significantly improve the commuting experience on BRT. With the Lagos Connect card, commuters will also enjoy seamless travel from Ikorodu to CMS.

  • Free bus ride at Yuletide

    Free bus ride at Yuletide

    To ease movement during the Christmas and New Year holidays, the Lagos State Government yesterday announced the provision of free buses for commuters between tomorrow and next Wednesday.

    A statement by the Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Dr. Dayo Mobereola, said the gesture would enable Lagosians move freely during the period.

    Mobereola said the free bus service which began in 2008 had helped in reducing congestion and accident on the roads during festive periods, adding that the service would run for 13 hours starting at 7.00am and ends at 10.00pm.

  • That diversion by LAMATA, CCECC in Ikorodu

    SIR: The extension of the BRT corridor from Mile 12 to Ikorodu by the present administration in Lagos State could not have come at a better time. I am more convinced that the Babatunde Raji Fashola led government in the state is truly planning for the future of Lagos as mega city.

    No one can contradict the fact that the future of Lagos lies not in the fully built-up Ikeja or Victoria Island or Yaba but in the interior and developing localities of Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and others, and any government that is truly desirous of planning ahead must begin to expand and upgrade infrastructures around these places.

    Words may not be enough to convey our appreciation to the BRF government for this timely intervention in the road infrastructure and transportation system of Ikorodu. This project is truly timely.

    However, while residents of Ikorodu continue to bear the inconveniences that come with a project of such magnitude, it is pertinent to mention that the attitude of the major contractor, CCECC and the supervising agency, LAMATA, is making the whole project look like a waste of time and resources, financial and human.

    The road diversions and closures as well as the deplorable state of usable portion of the stretch are causing serious discomfort and unquantifiable waste of productive time to residents along that axis. On a bad day, people spend six hours driving to and from work on the road, arriving their various places of work already spent resulting in low productivity and dwindling economy on the long run.

    Agreed that the attitude of drivers, commercial and private alike, contribute to the problem we face but it is rather unfortunate that road traffic managers are helpless due to the nature of the diversions, which makes control and enforcement almost impossible!

    I must not fail to commend the efforts of LASTMA officials on this stretch. They are presently working in extreme conditions. Yes they are!

    The most worrying and disturbing part of the closures and diversions is the recent closure of the U-turn by Mallo Filling Station which leads into Fela Ahmed Street, the major entrance into Agric-Ishawo-Owutu. This closure is ill-conceived.

    The closure of this major U-turn can only be seen as a policy somersault on the part of LAMATA as a government agency and the supervising agency for this project.

    It is now a daily occurrence to spend an average of two hours between Ogolonto and the new U-turn some 800metres ahead at Haruna bus stop. It is totally a betrayal of common sense on the part of the initiators.

    God forbid a situation where an emergency occurs around Agric, and one must get to Ogolonto or Haruna bus stops to make a turn before getting to the Ikorodu General Hospital at Ota-ona, the only government hospital in the entire Ikorodu! Definitely, the victim would have reached heaven three times before getting any medical attention.

    The road is being done for the people to enjoy and they truly deserve to enjoy it when it is completed and the money expended will have come to waste if the people suffer for government’s commitment to their cause.

    While the governor and government has demonstrated and fulfilled its electoral promises to make life better for the people, agencies like LAMATA and its contractor, CCECC should not make mockery of government’s sincerity by not listening to the people and sharing their opinion on a facility they will be enjoying, after all, the people cannot not relocate to Beijing or Guangzhou or Shanghai even if their interest are not properly protected in the place of their birth!

     

    • Yomi Ajayi

    Ishawo Road, Agric-Ikorodu.

     

  • Fashola approves contract for rail project extension

    Fashola approves contract for rail project extension

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has approved the award of contract for the extension of the ongoing construction of Blue line lite rail project from National Theatre to Marina.

    The Managing Director, Lagos Metropolitan Transport Management Authority (LAMATA), Dr. Dayo Mabereola, disclosed this on Wednesday at a forum organized by members of the Lagos State Governor’s Office Correspondents (LAGOCO) at the state secretariat, Ikeja.

    The briefing took place as part of activities marking the 2013 Press Week.

    Mabereola said the project being undertaken by LAMATA was awarded on Tuesday by the governor, adding that it would help facilitate movement from Mile 2 to Marina.

    He said though the project awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) is very expensive considering the terrain involved, he said on completion, it would help reduce traffic congestion and ease the burden of traffic witnessed daily on the route by residents.

    The LAMATA boss, who spoke on the topic, “LAMATA at 10: Challenges, Successes and Prospects,” assured residents of plans to evolve an ultra-modal mode of transportation that would be easily accessible by residents.

    “Gradually, people of Lagos have been abandoning Danfo and Molue buses for BRT. We have been reducing waiting time at bus stops, the travel time within the metropolis and we equally reduced transport fare by 40 percent compared to the service being rendered by yellow buses. ”

    He explained that the agency has developed a 20-year transportation developmental plan that covers bus, rail and ferry service including provision of good roads for BRT system to run well.

    He said part of the plan was the introduction of electronic ticketing system as against the previous paper ticketing system.

     

  • No bus plunged into the lagoon — LAGBUS, BRT

    No bus plunged into the lagoon — LAGBUS, BRT

     

    Operators of both the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) and LAGBUS bus services in Lagos have denied that a vehicle in their fleets was involved in any road mishap on Monday.

    The rumour mill was thick on Monday morning to the effect that ‘a fully loaded BRT bus crashed and plunged into the Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos’.

    The managing director of LAGBUS Assets Management Ltd., operators of LAGBUS buses, Mr Babatunde Disu, denied any such incident.

    Disu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that no bus in the LAGBUS fleet, as well as its sister transport company, BRT, was involved in any accident on Monday.

    “Some people can be mischievous! Nothing of such has happened and nobody is praying for such a disaster”, Disu said.

    In the same vein, Mr Kolawole Ojelabi,  a consultant with the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA)– regulators of the BRT– told NAN that the “malicious rumour was only the imagination of some weird people”.

    Ojelabi also prayed that no such evil would befall the transport sector in the state, either private or public. (NAN)

  • Kudos to LAMATA management

    SIR: It is commendable when leaders listen to the concerns of the led, and take positive action to address and attend to these concerns. It shows a leadership that is empathetic and focused.

    True leadership in Nigeria has always been a misfortune. With the bountiful resources, a proactive leadership cadre in this country can indeed take up its place of pride in the comity of nations. Until we are fortunate with such, we may be like a rudderless ship on the ocean of life and nationhood.

    Dr. Dayo Mobereola, the managing director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) has shown to be such a listening leader, at least from my own experience. I ride in the BRT bus for obvious reasons. It is faster and far more convenient than the regular ‘Danfo’ buses that serve the many Lagos routes.

    Some weeks back, I had laid before him, a complaint, concern and observation directly to his email. He responded with the promise to see that the issue raised will be resolved. The BRT corridor along the CMS route had these huge pot holes that made it difficult for the buses to use. Rather than drive along the corridor, the drivers resort to using the regular lanes. The drive down this bad spot when used creates a discomforting experience for the passengers and also impacts on the shocks of the bus.

    Recently when we passed the route, I noticed that the spot had been filled and the ride smoother. I will like to commend the office of the CEO, LAMATA, Dr. Mobereola for demonstrating insightful and responsive leadership.

    •Stephen Ipalibo Lawson,

    NTA, Lagos