Lagos State remains committed to provision of basic transportation infrastructure that will attract vulnerable groups – women, children, the aged and people living with disabilities, Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat has said.
He spoke while declaring open a three-day Sustainable Urban Mobility Conference, organised by Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), on Victoria Island, Lagos.
Dr. Hamzat, who represented Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the debilitating effect of climate change, arising from greenhouse gas emissions, made it imperative for the state to transit to more sustainable and cleaner transition fuel such as CNG and electric energy.
He added: “In Lagos, we have made this a top priority by managing and modernising transport infrastructure. Lagos State Government through LAMATA and Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA)
are implementing the sustainable Multimodal Transport system that will incorporate cleaner energy intra-city buses, light rail transit, modern inland waterway coaches and non-motorised transportation options, which include cycling and walking, which can be upscaled via automation.”
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Hamzat said the Sanwo-Olu administration was deploying clean urban transportation solutions that included hydroelectricity, CNG, biomass, geo-termal and solar energy.
He said LAMATA was implementing pilot phases of the two clean energy transitions through CNG buses and electric buses that would reduce emission and create a cleaner, quieter and less encumbered environment.
The deputy governor said government was aware that sustainability was not about deploying cleaner energy buses, but ensuring the facilities were available to citizens, irrespective of class and status.
He challenged participants comprising commissioner for Transportation and other top officials of Transportation ministries in the 36 states to come up with recommendations to promote inclusivity of sustainable transportation and its implementation strategies.
“It is good to get cleaner higher grade buses, but another thing is to ensure everyone, including the aged, the vulnerable such as people living with disabilities and children are able to assess them,” he said.
Transportation Commissioner Mr Oluwaseun Osiyemi said through LAMATA, Lagos State Government had achieved transformation in its transportation landscape.
LAMATA’s Managing Director, Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, an engineer; said the conference was an attempt to create a platform in which stakeholders of the transportation industry, especially governments, were able to have peer review on how to achieve sustainable and inclusive urban mobility.
Akinajo, addressing the theme of the conference: ‘Implementing safe, inclusive and climate resilient urban transport in a digital age for sustainable development’, listed the conference objectives to include developing capacity on urban mobility to spotlight critical issues in the sector with respect to climate change, inclusivity and technology, examining the contributions of transportation to environmental degradation, examining the financial complexities in building and maintaining sustainable public transport infrastructure, creating a networking for key stakeholders in the urban transport development chain, providing a platform to showcase the success stories of the Lagos urban mobility in order to inspire other states to do same.