Lagos State Government says it is committed to the completion of both the Red and Blue rail line projects on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway ten lanes project.

According to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, mass migration to Lagos caused gridlock and economic opportunities needed to grow the Gross Domestic Product of the state, hence the concern of government to harness inter-modal transportation.

Sanwo-Olu said Intermodal transport was the way to go for traffic management for economic growth, saying the state was restrained by huge funding implications of harnessing water, rail and road components of its infrastructure, but had designed creative ways to fund infrastructure.

The governor who spoke through his Deputy, Doctor Obafemi Hamzat, said within the last few weeks, government had promising discussions with various groups of investors who had expressed their intention to invest in the transport sector, especially in water transport sub-sector.

According to Hamzat, the sector was grossly under-utilised in terms of harnessing its economic potential, saying unless government was creative, it would take the budget of Lagos State the next seven years to complete inter-modal transportation.

Hamzat said the new bus routes were created for the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, in the state to increase mass transportation and harness the enormous water bodies’ resources in the state.

According to him, government was partnering with the Federal Government in developing Rail lines, in a bid to ease pressure on the roads and create free flow of traffic, saying one of the aims of expending efforts on rail lines was to reduce the number of cars on the roads.

He said government was also working out modalities to ensure existing intermodal transport system was completed soon, assuring that government was keen at developing all the modes of transportation and deploying them to the safe, affordable, and comfortable movement of people, goods and service from one point to the other.

Hamzat who expressed concerns at the state of roads, assured that officials of the public works corporation would swing into action and embark on aggressive palliation of all road networks immediately the rain subsides, saying all the three bitumen plants at Ojodu, Imota and Badagry were all functional and would be deployed simultaneously to tackle repairs from all ends of the state.

He assured the state will continue to collaborate with the federal government to deliver real dividends to Lagosians, citing the rehabilitation of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, the construction of the red line light rail, and the reconstruction of the Airport road as some of the infrastructural projects that signposts such collaborations.

Hamzat said this in a keynote address at the fourth Lagos Traffic Radio Lecture Series, with the themed; Lagos Beyond Roads; The Intermodal Transport Option, held at the Radio Lagos/ Eko Fm Multi Purpose Hall, Ikeja.

Speaking as guest speaker on the topic: “Inter-modal Mobility for Lagos Today and Tomorrow” former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said though funding may pose a challenge, government must prioritise its programmes and policies to make transportation meaningful to the people.

Fashola, a former Lagos governor, said until the government achieved the desire to open up the rail transportation, the road would continue to carry the major bulk of the need for movement of people and services, saying the responsibility would be on the government therefore to maintain all the road networks to make the them passable and usable to motorists.

According to Fashola, his administration would have test run the blue rail before it was consumed by the political manoeuvring in twenty-fifteen, saying his government had taken delivery of four coaches that could take one thousand two hundred passengers at each movement.

Fashola also challenged the government to develop the BRT system and link all the five divisions by the critical public transportation system.

He also advocated for urgent implementation massive deployment of LASTMA officials to all critical roads, the resurfacing of all the major road networks, especially those that focuses in the central spine of the state and transport education.

According to him, the state government should through the Ministry of Education take the Highway codes and the traffic laws of the state and develop a curriculum from primary to secondary and the university that would teach the younger generation transport education.

Fashola urged the present administration to build on the successes recorded in water, rail and road network in the state.

After highlighting several problems of infrastructure challenge and traffic management in the state, he stressed the need to change orientation of the next generation toward adherence to traffic regulations.

Fashola urged the state Deputy Governor, and the Ministry of Education to take Highway Code and the Lagos State Traffic Law and develop a curriculum so children could learn, saying they must start training the next generation for doing better than we have, perhaps done

He commended the Traffic Radio for staying afloat and keeping up with the vision for which it was established when he was in the office as governor.

Fashola urged them to begin an educational traffic programme, saying the station could partner with its sponsors to attach reward to it and make it interactive to change attitudes.

The former governor called for sustained road maintenance and deployment of LASTMA to important huge traffic bearing roads which he referred to as “the central spines of Lagos”.

Fashola said ferry and rail services started in Lagos under the leadership of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, saying his administration did its best in constructing new jetties, and the tempo should be sustained to meet the teeming population of Lagos.