The governor of Lagos State has given the marching order to contractors to deliver the first phase of the Lagos light rail project in the next 24 months. The Assistant Director, Corporate Communication of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), Mr Kola Ojelabi discloses to DAYO AYEYEMI in an interview.
What has been going on with the Light Rail project?
Lagos State Government has what it called Strategic Master Plan (SMP) and this plan details transport infrastructure that will be required in Lagos over a 30-year period to take care of the traffic congestion. Two of the rail lines proposed under the SMP is the Red Line and the Blue Line. The blue line is a 27-kilometres rail line from Marina to Okokomaiko after LASU. The first phase is currently under completion – that is from Mile 2 to Marina. The first station has been completed in the sense that if at all we are going to work on it, it is just minimal. So we will have the Mile 2 Rail Station, Alaba rago Station, Orile Station and National Theatre Station.
From Orile, we did the elevation up to National Theatre. From National Theatre, it is going to cross the Lagoon, and that is from between National Theatre and Marina. This is where you have most work because the rail line is elevated and there are lots of structures on ground. One of the things that actually affected the rail line was why the alignment has to be changed because it was supposed to go through Iddo, but because of the issue with the law on railway, so we have to take another alignment. We have to go through Iddo axis where they sell fish. So there are lots of property issues there that have to be settled. And when we got into the Lagoon, we saw some sinking boats/ships that have to be removed. We also got to a place where we also met gas pipe. All of these things caused a lot of delays, but currently if you go to Marina section, you will see that a lot of works are going on there. The governor is committed to the completion of the first phase before he ends his first term.
What happens to the Red Line?
The Red Line is a 37-kilometre rail line, starting from Marina to Agbado. That section of Agbado is in Ogun State and a lot of people who live in that area are working in Central Lagos. There is also cooperation between Lagos and Ogun State Governments regarding the issue. One of the things we also agreed with the Federal Government is that we share tracks. So the current track that takes people from Lagos to Ibadan, we are going to share that track. We will be building some other infrastructure like overpass, but the whole essence of that is to ensure there is less interaction between the train and vehicular/human traffic.
Why that?
Before now, we had one line, that is narrow gauge, but we are going to have three lines now: One narrow gauge, the Federal Government’s rail line and the Lagos State Government’s rail line. What it means is that frequency operation will be rapid. So most of the rail crosses will be eliminated to give way for overpasses. Example is one you find at Asade around Guinness PLC. There is another one at Pen Cinema. We are working constantly with the Federal Government; we are going to construct four overpasses. The first phase of the Red Line will start from Oyingbo and end in Agbado. That is 27 kilometres. Later on, it will be taken to Marina. It is also going to be elevated because of some issues regarding existing buildings, bridges and the lagoon around that area. The Federal Government has given us a leave for additional overpasses. We are going to build overpass at Oyingbo, Ogunmokun in Mushin, Yaba and Ikeja.
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