Lagos Light Rail Project To Be Completed By Dec 2016

Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi ambode,
said on Thursday that the state’s light rail
project would be completed by December
2016 and would commence operation
immediately.
This is coming about six years after the
Blue Line rail project was awarded to China
Civil Engineering Construction Company. It
is a 27-kilometre line stretching from
Okokomaiko to Marina.
The President, Council for the Regulation of
Engineering in Nigeria, Kashim Ali, also said
that the $874m Abuja-Kaduna rail project
was at 70 per cent completion and should
be ready by the first quarter of 2016. He
spoke in Lagos on the sidelines of an event
organised by the International Project
Finance Association in collaboration with
the KPMG.
ambode said that the state government was
determined to complete the light rail project
by the end of next year because it would
ease the traffic situation in the Lagos
metropolis and improve the living standard
of the people.
The Blue line was initially slated for
completion in 2011 but has suffered delays
due to funding problems.
According to the implementing agency, the
Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport
Authority, the first phase of the project
from Mile 2 to the National Theatre (a
distance of seven kilometres) has been
completed; while work is ongoing on the
second phase from Mile 2 to Marina.
LAMATA said it was part the Lagos Urban
rail Network covering seven major corridors
of high commuter traffic demand within and
beyond metropolitan Lagos, extending to
border areas with states such as Ogun and
Oyo.
But ambode, who told Reuters on Thursday
that “by December 2016, the light rail
should be delivered,” had earlier said a new
funding arrangement was being worked out
to speed up work on the project and get it
ready next year.
“This project is driven by commercial loans
and bonds leaning on the state’s Internally
Generated Revenue. That arrangement
cannot be sustained. We are negotiating a
better package that will deliver the project
by the end of 2016,” he said.
The governor also said a tender for the
expansion had been opened, and that the
rail network would connect the northern and
the southern parts of Lagos.
The Red line will be 30km long, running
between Marina and Agbado, and will use
the existing Nigeria Railway Corporation
corridor.
Other lines as proposed by LAMATA are
Green, Yellow, Purple, Brown and Orange.
Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for
Transport, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, has said
that the amount required to construct one
kilometre of railway line in Nigeria was
double that of other countries.
Mobereola, who was represented by the
Technical Adviser, LAMATA, Mr. Oladeinde
Frederick, said this was due to the wrong
costing of the project by international
investors who did not understand the
Nigerian environment.
While speaking at the IPFA West Africa
seminar themed, ‘Unlocking rapid
development of transport infrastructure in
Nigeria,’ in Lagos on Thursday, Mobereola
explained that other reasons for abandoned
infrastructural projects were delayed
approvals, changes in project managers and
lack of expertise.
For instance, he said Lagos has a different
soil texture from other regions, adding that
the cost of constructing one kilometre of
railway line in the state was $40m, and $
20m in other places.