Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos has given an update on the Blue and Red Line rail projects in Lagos State.
According to him, Lagos has completed Phase I of the Blue line and that President Muhammadu Buhari himself will be coming later in the month to officially commission the Blue line. That is, the Phase I of the blue line which is from Mile 2 to Marina.
He added: “There are five stations on that corridor; we have finished it and it is completed. We have seen the new trains and additional trains are in the ports; they are going to be cleared this week and you will see them before the end of the month. So, we are ready. It is a rail that is running on electricity, which is for climate change.”
On whether the smooth operation will be affected by the unstable power supply, the Governor responded: “We have IPP and it is going to be dedicated to it; air conditioning, everything. It is an intra-city train, meaning that we understand that we have load; we can carry load. It is open; you can walk in and walk out very quickly.”
Speaking further, Sanwo-Olu said, “When Mr President comes, we are starting Phase II immediately and Phase II is from Mile 2 all the way to Okokomiko. The beauty of that one is that it is in the middle as well; the right of way is there. It will be done quicker and faster because it is not elevated like the first one. It is at grid level, so we will finish it in no time.
“The Red line for me is the one that my heart beats a lot for because of the level of infrastructure that the Red line will do and we will complete it. By the way, we got only about 147 days to May 29 this year, which is the thing that I signed with Lagosians. We will finish it in our first term. The Red line is from Oyingbo all the way to Agbado. Agbado is actually in Ogun State and we extended it because we wanted to catch all of the traffic to make it viable. It is on the old rail corridor.
“We build our own with Federal Government going Lagos-Ibadan. So, they will leave from Ebute-Metta, go straight to Agege, and get out of Lagos but we will start from Oyingbo. We will do Ebute Metta, Yaba, Ilupeju, Mushin, Ikeja, Agege, Ayoola Cooker, Iju, and then Agbado. It is a whole stretch.”
