Lagos Transport update

From today's Guardian Nayjeeria:

Lagos to boost water transportation with seven routes
By Ajibola Amzat
ALL the major waterways are to be developed by the Lagos State government to ease congestion on the roads.

Already, the state government has identified seven routes on the waterways, which it plans to develop to achieve mass movement of the residents to their offices and business places.

The routes are Badore - Marina, Ijede - Ipakodo (Ikorodu), Oworonsoki-Elegbeta-Marina, (LASU) - Mile 2, Oke Afa - Festac, Mile 2 - Marina and Ikorodu - Marina.

At the luncheon organised by the alumni of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan in his honour, the Commissioner for Transport, Professor Bamidele Abiona Badejo, said that road alone cannot solve the problem of transportation. The new routes, he said, would go a long way in solving the problem of commuting in the metropolis.

Badejo said that the dredging of the routes though took off during the administration of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu, but much of the work was yet to be done. He assured Lagos residents that more efforts would be committed to complete the exercise and make the new routes work.

According to him, the government has formed a transport advisory committee to give administration feedback on the state of traffic in the state.

Badejo, who declared his intention to make the roads free of traffic snarl within a short time, said that the trunk terminal at Orile had been opened for use by tanker drivers. "We have asked the tanker drivers to park their vehicles at the terminal to give other motorists chance to move," he said.

The terminal, he said, can accommodate 500 tankers, "so also we are setting up parks where other vehicles owners can park their vehicles, we need to make transport flow well in Lagos."

On the problem of over population, Badejo lamented the dearth of Government Reserved Areas (GRA), saying that there was a need to build more of such estates in the state. "Lagos being the sixth most populated city on earth should have several GRAs in order to reduce the high density in the state. There should be GRA in Ikorodu, in Mile 2, in Ipaja area and others."

The chairman of the event, Professor Kunle Adeniji advised government to focus less on road transportation, especially in populated states like Lagos.

Adeniji said any state having up to 17 million people requires rail transport system.