LASG to clean up rail corridors ahead Red Line completion

By Adeola Ogunrinde

The governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday said government would carry out total clean up of rail corridors ahead the completion of the Red Line.

Sanwo-Olu who went on inspection tour of the project, stated that intruders who were carrying out illegal activities would be flushed out.

WesternPost reports that the capacity of the train already procured by the State Government is not less than 1,000 passengers per train.

Sanwo-Olu also hinted that to ease vehicular movement around the stations, the State Government would begin with commissioning of the bridges starting from Yaba in October.

On the entourage of the Governor included his Deputy, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, Managing Director of Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, Abimbola Akinajo, Special Adviser on Transportation, Sola Giwa, Commissioner for the Environment, Tokunbo Wahab, and Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso.

Addressing journalists at Ebute Metta, Sanwo-Olu said the government needed to clean up all the entire rail corridors for passengers’ movement, saying people have to have a change of attitude.

Sanwo-Olu said, “We thank you for spending your Eid Maolud celebration with us. It has been a long journey, we almost toured all the entire Red Line.

“As you have observed, our journey started all the way from Agbado Station in Ogun State, from there we proceeded to Iju Station which is in Lagos, from there to Ikeja Station. We skipped Mushin Station because of time and logistics. We stopped at Yaba Station and we are in Ebute Metta.

“All the Stations we have been, we have seen the state of the platforms and we have seen some works that we need to do. We need to do some clean up again especially illegal activities on the tracks which should not be and some final approach around pedestrian bridges that we need to clean up.

“In all, I think I’m impressed with the works done by the contractors. We believe we are still on track to ensure that we finish before the end of the year and that is what we are committed to. We will work tirelessly on how this will happen especially on the intruders in the rail corridors

“We told some people that are working on the rail that it is going to be zero tolerance. We need to clean up all the entire rail corridors for passengers movement. It is going to be a change of attitude in our way of life because these rail tracks are not elevated. We have a lot of works to do to ensure that people are not working in the rail tracks.

“We have walled off most of the rail tracks through wire mesh but you would notice that they have started breaking them, so we need to do concrete works. We have to have a distance of 500 metres to the rail corridors and secure the citizens.”

The Governor noted that construction of the vehicular bridges around the stations have been completed, saying “What we will do before the launch of the Red Line is to give relief to the citizens.

“So the bridges will be commissioned, the Yaba bridge in October so that passengers and vehicles can begin to use it. Thereafter, we go to Ikeja Station before coming to Ebute Metta.”

He added that for safety of passengers there would be CCTV cameras around the stations.

He noted that Ikeja Station would be the biggest in the whole of Africa, adding that it would encourage citizens’ participation.