All is set as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to commission the Red Line component of the Lagos Mass Transit Rail (LMTR) today.
The first component of the project, popularly called the Blue Line was commissioned by the former President Muhammad Buhari on January 24, last year.
President Tinubu during his tour of duty as Governor of Lagos State had in 2003 commissioned the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) to commence the engineering design of the Blue and Red Line Train Service, and construction had commenced on the Blue Line in 2006.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on April 21, 2021 commenced work on the Red Line with funds provided by three lenders banks coordinated by the Central Bank of Nigeria under its COVID-19 intervention support to state governments.
The Sanwo-Olu administration had flagged off the Red Line as a legacy project on the intervention.
The red line which will be sharing the same corridor with Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) had built seven train stations and two stacking yards located at Oyingbo, Yaba, Mushin, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege, .and Agbado.
The administration also constructed five overpasses at Oyingbo, Yaba, Mushin, and Ikeja, and Agege, to remove human interference from the rail tracks. There are two stacking yards for the red line at Oyingbo and Agbado.
The first phase of the red line is a 13km that spanned from Oyingbo to Agbado.
The second phase, which is to be flagged off by President Tinubu, is to link Oyingbo to Marina to complete the loop and provide a link from Agbado to Marina.
Earlier in the month, the Governor led a high level team to the China Railway Rolling stock Corporation to order for more rail cars, rolling stocks for both the Blue and the Red line.
The Red line is expected to go into commercial operation immediately is proposed to provide transit alternative to about 500,000 in the immediate and would commute about 1.5m passenger traffic monthly when the line is fully operational.
THE NATION
