Lagos State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN on Tuesday formally flagged off the operation of a fleet of 100 new Air-conditioned buses made possible by the partnership of the LAGBUS Asset Management Limited and one of its franchisees Metro Bus, reiterating the administration’s commitment to build a reliable and sustainable multi- modal transport system that is driven by the private sector.
The Governor who spoke at the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) Yard, Oshodi added that the purpose of the vision is clear but its ultimate goal is prosperity for the generality of the people which can only be delivered in a structured partnership with the private sector.
He added that it is only by creating opportunity for private sector to take ownership and employ people, provide services that government can really can deliver the prosperity of her dreams.
While reinforcing the multi- modal objective of the state government that is boosted with the increased bus fleet, Fashola gave a status update on the various transport related projects, informing that the jetties and the terminals in Mile 2, Badore, Osborne, Ipakodo, Ibeshe are being concluded.
He stated that from just 150,000 passengers per month in 2007, the State is moving over 1.6million people every month with about 200 ferries already licensed and owned by the private sector, adding that more is yet to come.
“So what we are doing on land today is already taking place on water and what we expect to see when all of the jetties are commissioned, is extension, bigger capacity ferries financed by banks and owned by individuals and small companies and then our job really would have been done”.
“For now, there are a lot of water taxis carrying 16 to 24 passengers and there are almost 200 of them and everywhere you look on our waterways up to Ijegun- Egba you would see them. People are moving on a daily basis and a lot of employment is going on there”, he stressed.
“We have completed Mile 2, Orile, Alaba and Costain stations for the rail. We are heading to the fifth station in Marina and if you are driving on the Marina you would see that we are driving pillar by pillar, we are on our way, so that you can come by water, join a bus and continue your journey from Marina and may be into Victoria Island when that one starts”.
“There are seven lines for the whole of Lagos so the Master plan is ready and one by one we would connect this together. That is what is in the 2012-2025 Development Plan that we have just unveiled”, he added.
He explained that the BRT system was all about empowering private sector and that the first partners were the road transport unions who owned the old buses on Lagos roads, adding that the government convinced them that if they could change their buses the face of transportation in Lagos would be changed.
“They agreed and bought the first set of buses. They took loans, paid off the loans, recapitalized but again the environment in which they invested then has changed substantially”.
Tracing the origin of the first set of BRT buses, the Governor said it was the positive spin-off of a partnership with the private sector.
“Government did not own the BRT buses; it was private sector that owned them. Our job was to build the roads, the bus shelters to maintain and manage them while they ran their buses but that environment at the time they were borrowing money at One Dollar at 118 Naira and interest rate at 10 percent has changed completely”, he added.
Read More : The Lagos State Government
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