Gridlock tamed with iconic projects, Lagos govt assures residents

Lagos State government has assured Lagosians that the issue of gridlock across the state has been tamed with various iconic projects that will shape the face of commuting in 2024.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, gave this assurance, during an interactive session with newsmen over the weekend, even as he listed some iconic projects that would be unveiled during the year by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration.

According to him, the projects include: the Red Line Rail, the Opebi-Ojota Link Bridge and the completion of 15 Ferry Jetties as well as the deployment of an additional 12 ferries to the existing ones, saying that these would ease commuting across the state

The commissioner said the Opebi Link Bridge would take traffic off the Ikorodu Road and make access to the Airport from Ojota a lot easier, noting that the Red Line would reduce the about three-hour travel time by road from Iddo to Agbado to about 35 minutes while the Water Transportation would receive a boost with the completion of about 15 new jetties and the addition of 12 boats to the existing 21.

This was just as he quickly recalled that, at inception, the Sanwo-Olu-led government inherited seven ferry boats and increased the number to 14 and then 21.

Speaking further on the legacy projects of the present administration, Omotoso hinted that more developmental projects such as the Fourth Mainland Bridge, Massey Street Hospital, 500-Bed Mental Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, Ketu-Ejinrin Food and Logistics Hub, the Lekki International Airport, Omu Creek project, the Coastal Road project, Leather Hub at Mushin and General Hospitals, would receive the attention of the state government this year.

The commissioner, while noting that the projects were geared towards creating jobs for the teeming population of the state, opined that the Fourth Mainland Bridge was capable of creating 10,000 jobs and exposing young engineers to practical knowledge about building such gigantic projects.

Shedding more light on the Fourth Mainland Bridge and the Red Line, the Commissioner disclosed that the preferred bidder for the bridge, a consortium of construction companies and financiers, had been selected, adding that the financial commitments were being worked out and physical work expected to commence soon.

He said the Red Line was about 90 per cent completed, pointing out that the last of the overdrive located in Mushin would be commissioned soon.

On the role of the state government in the recent change of leadership in the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Lagos State, the commissioner declared pointedly that it was purely a Union matter, assuring that the government would recognise and relate with any legitimate leadership of all associations in the state.

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