By Adedapo Adesanya
The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said the blue and red line rail projects across the state would be supervised every quarter until it is completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The governor gave this assurance during an inspection tour of the projects at Ikeja, Yaba, Ebute Metta, and Marina Stations yesterday.
Mr Sanwo-Olu expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the stations, noting that the contractors were on course and hoped that they would round up this year, promising to intensify supervision and monitoring of the projects quarterly to facilitate speedy completion.
“Our promise on the blue and the red line is still on course. We believe that, by coming on a quarterly basis to supervise them, we would ensure that before the end of this year, we will see the trains on top of the tracks. That is our commitment and we will begin to monitor and check ourselves.
“It is a very iconic and landmark project that we are truly proud of. On behalf of the government, I want to commend all of our contractors because they are very committed. They have assured us that whatever it takes, they will complete all of the projects on schedule and on budget,” the governor said.
“We embarked on this similar tour about three or four months ago and we did mention that we would be doing it every quarter so that we can see how far the constructions are going.
“As we all have seen, I am happy to report that the construction is going on according to schedule. All the contractors are here even today not being a working day, they are all on-site working,” the governor told journalists who were with him during the tour to the four stations.
The Red and Blue line rail is part of the intermodal transportation system of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration in reducing gridlock and ensuring interconnectivity in different parts of the state.
When completed, the 37 kilometres Red Line Rail Project will link Agbado to Marina, while the 27.5 kilometres Blue line Rail Project will run from Okokomaiko to Marina.
Governor Sanwo-Olu also disclosed the plan by the State Government to relocate the market around the train station at Yaba as the government is engaging the concerned stakeholders on how best to relocate traders to another place.
Modupe Gbadeyanka