Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority LAMATA @lamataonline
Redemption City to Volkswagen rail project: Purple Line Scoping Workshop Engages Lagos Stakeholders
The Lagos State Government's plan to construct a 57-kilometer rail line connecting Redemption City to Volkswagen through the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) is moving forward, strongly emphasizing environmental and community considerations.
Day two of a crucial scoping workshop brought together stakeholders from Agege, Ikeja, Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government Areas and Ojodu and Orile Agege Local Council Development Area to discuss the project's alignment and potential impacts.
The Purple rail line, spanning 11 local government areas (nine in Lagos and two in Ogun State), will feature 17 stations, utilizing elevated and at-grade level tracks.
The workshop, conducted in accordance with Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) standards, saw participation from key figures, including representatives from the Federal and State Ministries of Environment, as well as local government officials and community development Committees (CDCs) and community development associations (CDAs).
LAMATA officials, including the head of corporate communication, Mr. Kolawole Ojelabi, Mr. Dipo Quadri, Mrs. Ibironke Omorhirhi and Architect Dipo Oshobu and consultant, Dr Babatunde Osho of Global Impact environmental consulting limited presented the project's details, outlining the plan for an integrated multimodal transport system in Lagos.
While the project received enthusiastic from the grassroots participants, they emphasized the importance of continued engagement with CDC and CDAs, security agencies, and traffic management authorities.
This collaborative approach aims to proactively address potential challenges and ensure smooth project implementation, minimizing disruption and maximizing benefits for the communities along the rail line's path.
LAMATA originally proposed these 7 lines and a monorail during the istration of Governor Bola Tinubu, but there have been some modifications since then.
1) Blue line: Okokomaiko-Marina
2) Red Line: Agbado-MMIA-Marina
3) Green Line: Lekki Airport-Marina
4) Yellow Line: Otta-Iddo
5) Purple Line: Redeemed Camp-Ojo
6) Brown Line: Mile 12 - Marina
7) Orange Line: Redeemed Camp-Marina
*) Monorail connecting Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki Phase 1.
Changes:
The Yellow Line will now go from Otta to the National Theater.
The Orange Line will now go from Ikeja, through Alausa to Ikorodu.
NO state is going to follow Lagos, because they don't have access to the funds Lagos has...and even with Lagos funds, it took Lagos 15 years to do two out of seven lines.
If a state tried it, North or south...they would have to take heavy loans, and to pay back those loans, they would have to charge high prices for the rail.
Nigeria is not a rich nation. Even Lagos, they are using second hand rolling stock, and it still cost them a whole lot of money.
The stakeholders are not up to 10 in that classroom ..... 🤔 Hmmm.
A whole govt agency should hv these stuff mounted strategically both online and offline at LGAs of impact for public scrutiny.not calling some few party men to wear ankara to come n hear presentations without any critical reviews and questions.....this is a project that govt will sink millions of borrowed dollars o!
God abeg o
NO state is going to follow Lagos, because they don't have access to the funds Lagos has...and even with Lagos funds, it took Lagos 15 years to do two out of seven lines.
If a state tried it, North or south...they would have to take heavy loans, and to pay back those loans, they would have to charge high prices for the rail.
Nigeria is not a rich nation. Even Lagos, they are using second hand rolling stock, and it still cost them a whole lot of money.
Bola Tinubu's July 17th, 2000 announcement and the problems of the Red Line rail project
That funny guy just asked a question on my thread and even though I know that he should not be taken seriously, it reminded me of the fact that a lot of people are confused about the Red Line rail project.
The question that the guy asked was, why didn't Bola Tinubu continue with Jakande's Metroline project? Why did he start another project of his own? Is it because he wanted to claim the glory?
The confusion that I think some people have with the Red Line project is, (1) Why was it possible to construct the Red Line so quickly (a matter of months) when it took a long time (more than ten years) to construct the Blue Line? (2) What is the route of the Red Line.
All these questions will be answered in this post. The main purpose of this post is to highlight the problems associated with the construction of the Red Line rail line.
1) Governor Jakande's Metroline
As I have previously stated, the United Nations, in conjunction with other international agencies, conducted a study in the 1950s and showed that certain cities in the developing world will be among the biggest cities in the world by the year 2000. They therefore made suggestions about how these cities would be able to cope with the large population that they would have. Among these suggestions was that metro rail systems needed to be constructed in these cities. If I correctly, the cities included Cairo, Lagos and Johannesburg. The Cairo metro was opened in phases between 1987 and 1991 (President Babangida of Nigeria opened the 1991 phase), the Johannesburg metro was constructed for the 2010 World Cup and parts of the Lagos metro have now been completed.
Previous governments of Lagos were not really serious about constructing the metro line, but Governor Jakande took it very seriously. His plan was to construct the metroline tracks in the median of Ikorodu Road, from Jibowu all the way down. He got a World Bank loan for the project, however there was a problem.
In order to get the funds from the loan, he had to get a guarantee from the Federal Government. The Central Bank refused to give the guarantee. This was during the crisis caused by the 1982 collapse of oil prices and the CBN said that it could not afford to give the guarantee. I have already described the meeting at Dodan Barracks between Shagari, Abdulkadir Ahmed (the CBN governor) and Governor Jakande in my transport series. (Jakande said that some people told him that the Federal Government refused to give the guarantee because he was in a different political party, while others told him that it was because he didn't congratulate Shagari for winning the presidential election, but he didn't believe them).
The lack of the guarantee delayed the project until the military overthrew the civilian istration. The Federal Military Government set up a committee to examine all projects in the light of the financial crisis. The committee recommended that the metroline project should be suspended because the government did not have enough money to complete it.
Bola Tinubu's amendment
If you watch the video below (from July 17th, 2000), you will notice that the rail project that Governor Bola Tinubu is talking about is the Red Line rail project. If he was talking about the Red Line project in the year 2000, how come work began on the Blue Line before the Red Line? I'll explain.
Governor Jakande's metroline was supposed to run down the median of Ikorodu Road. However, this would have caused problems. Firstly, it would have meant that houses would have to be demolished in order to expand Ikorodu Road. Secondly, it would have interfered with the BRT system that LAMATA had proposed.
LAMATA?
Governor Tinubu had lived in the US and the UK and he knew that there was usually a transport authority that oversees the major transportation networks in a modern mega city. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs the seaports, airports, rail networks, subways and bus networks in the states of New York and New Jersey. Transport for London runs the tube, rail networks, bus networks and ferry systems in London. Governor Tinubu felt that Lagos needed something similar and so he created the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
LAMATA proposed the BRT system and 7 rail lines for Lagos. Rather than building the first rail line down the median of Ikorodu Road, LAMATA proposed that it should be built along the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC corridor).
The Western National Line (from Lagos to Kano) runs almost parallel with Ikorodu Road for much of its length in Lagos and it was felt that this was the best place to build the line. Why? The place has already been demarcated as a right of way for the national line and nobody is allowed to build anything there. This means that there would be no need to demolish people's houses or pay compensation to anyone.
Therefore, the first line, which Governor Tinubu was talking about in the video below, was meant to run parallel with the NRC line from Oyingbo to Agbado. This is the Red Line.
If the Red Line was meant to be the first line, then why was the Blue Line started before it.
The NRC corridor belongs to the Federal Government and the PDP led Federal Government of Olusegun Obasanjo was in dispute with the AD led Lagos State Government of Bola Tinubu. Furthermore, the Federal Government said that it did not make any sense for it to allow the Lagos State Government to build a rail line that will compete with the NRC line on that corridor.
In other words, the Obasanjo led Federal Government blocked the construction of the Red Line.
Governor Tinubu left office and Governor Fashola took over. He decided that since the Federal Government would not allow Lagos to begin constructing the Red Line, he should go ahead with the Blue Line, because, at least there was no rail line in the Ojo area, so the Federal Government/NRC cannot accuse Lagos State of trying to compete with it.
They went ahead with the Blue Line, but that project also faced its own problems. The Minister of Works threatened to halt the project because the expressway on which it was being built belongs to the Federal Government. Luckily, President Yar'Adua over-ruled him. Yar'Adua said that the masses would benefit from the project, therefore, they should not allow party political differences to prevent the project from going ahead.
Yar'Adua did the same thing with the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge. There was a Federal Government house on Alexander Avenue, at the point where the bridge was meant to land. The Lagos State Government asked for permission to demolish the house, but the minister of works refused. Governor Fashola went to President Yar'Adua and he approved the demolition immediately. He said that the bridge would benefit the masses and therefore, nothing should prevent the project from going ahead. That's why Fashola paid tribute to Yar'Adua when the bridge was being commissioned.
Anyway, the Lagos State Government went ahead with the Blue Line project. That also faced a lot of obstacles, but that's another story for another day.
Muhammadu Buhari became President of Nigeria and he completed the Lagos - Ibadan leg of the Western Standard Gauge line. I wrote on this thread that this was a great opportunity for the Lagos State Government and that they had to seize the opportunity quickly. The government was already thinking along that line and I heard the announcement the next week.
Basically, the Lagos State Government reached an agreement with the Federal Government that it would use the national standard gauge line for much of the Red Line network. The old colonial narrow gauge line ran from Iddo at the edge of the Mainland, through Oyingbo, Ebute Metta, Yaba, Mushin, Onipanu, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege, Iju and all the way into Ogun State. It had a branch that went from Ebute Metta to the Apapa Port.
The Colonial Government wanted the rail line to get as close to Lagos Island as possible and that's why its terminus was at Iddo, right at the edge of the Mainland. In fact you can see the Lagos Terminus building from the Island.
The Federal Government saw no need for the Standard Gauge line to get so close to the Island and so the last station on that line is at Ebute Metta. It also has a branch line that goes to the Apapa Port.
However, the Lagos State Government wants its Red Line to get to the Island.
Therefore, what the Lagos State Government has had to build on the Red Line are:
1) Extension of the tracks from Ebute Metta to Oyingbo.
2) The Red Line train stations.
3) There are a lot of level crossings on the route, but the Lagos State Government does not want any conflict between cars and trains (so that the kind of accident we saw in Abuja last week will not occur), so the government has built flyovers at every spot where there is a level crossing. Cars will go over the bridges, so that they will not come in with the trains.
The rest of the route is made up of the Federal Government tracks. That's why it was easier to build the Red Line than it was to build the Blue Line.
Governor Bola Tinubu's speech
of the Corporate Council of Africa (CCA) visited Governor Bola Tinubu at the Governor's Office, Round House, Alausa on July 17th, 2000. The Governor spoke about investment opportunities and developments in Lagos. This is where he spoke about the Red Line rail project. I have transcribed that part of his speech below.
We plan to have a private sector partnership, either BOT, or BOO, in our infrastructural development.
We need companies that are ready to invest in some of the highways and bridges and toll them. We need a huge interested party in telecommunications.
Our mass transit programme is on course, the metroline is being discussed already. We have attracted the interest of the World Bank once again. We think. . . we are evaluating between a light rail that is less disruptive and destructive to the right of way. We are looking at the corridor of the existing railway tracks to, really, according to the study already conducted by the World Bank, to take off from west to east and south to north and then we can now some other areas either with metro or with bus mass transit system.
That is a programme that we must embark on quickly. We are very serious about that.
We are privatising our water project. Interested investors are welcome to be granted concessions. We are thinking of breaking them into two and the deliverables. The Lagos Island - Lekki to continue, while . . .
Ikorodu Division of Lagos State doesn't attract real developmental projects. 4th Mainland bridge remain a pipe dream after over 16years. The Orange line too will remain a dream. Blue line serves Badagry Division, Red line serves, Ikeja Division, Green line to serve Lagos Island and Epe likewise the blue and red line. Why starts the purple before the Orange line?
Housing:
Ikorodu Division of Lagos State doesn't attract real developmental projects. 4th Mainland bridge remain a pipe dream after over 16years. The Orange line too will remain a dream. Blue line serves Badagry Division, Red line serves, Ikeja Division, Green line to serve Lagos Island and Epe likewise the blue and red line. Why starts the purple before the Orange line?
Sanwo Olu we are watching
🤣 On the other thread someone is complaining that the Blue Line will not get to Badagry, yet there is a line to Ikorodu.
I'll say the same thing that I told him. If you give them the money, they'll complete the Orange Line today.
nairalanda1:
Wish the whole project was complete when I was in Lagos recently...would have just hopped on a train, instead of using cars.
It's going to take a while o. Although the blue line is working, but that took over a decade just to get the Mile 2 to Marina route alone. They're still working on extending that one to Okokomaiko axis, which has taken some few years additionally.
Hopefully other ones will be faster. At least, Lagos is trying as a state and setting a good example in that aspect.
naptu2:
LAMATA originally proposed these 7 lines and a monorail during the istration of Governor Bola Tinubu, but there have been some modifications since then.
1) Blue line: Okokomaiko-Marina
2) Red Line: Agbado-MMIA-Marina
3) Green Line: Lekki Airport-Marina
4) Yellow Line: Otta-Iddo
5) Purple Line: Redeemed Camp-Ojo
6) Brown Line: Mile 12 - Marina
7) Orange Line: Redeemed Camp-Marina
*) Monorail connecting Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki Phase 1.
Changes:
The Yellow Line will now go from Otta to the National Theater.
The Orange Line will now go from Ikeja, through Alausa to Ikorodu.
nairalanda1:
NO state is going to follow Lagos, because they don't have access to the funds Lagos has...and even with Lagos funds, it took Lagos 15 years to do two out of seven lines.
If a state tried it, North or south...they would have to take heavy loans, and to pay back those loans, they would have to charge high prices for the rail.
Nigeria is not a rich nation. Even Lagos, they are using second hand rolling stock, and it still cost them a whole lot of money.
Why are you avoiding the big elephant in the room- corruption and looting? Isn’t that surprising because of your constant complaints about subsidies
Has Lagos not taken heavy loans and charging high prices for the rail, despite huge IGR squeezed out of the public? The issue of whether other states and the FCT can sustain a light rail system should be about the population, particularly the population density in their cities and how wealthy people are in a widespread manner.
How much loans did Jakande take to start the rail project in 1983 before Buhari cancelled it after his coup that was the only successful one against democracy? How much IGR was Jakande squeezing out of the public to loot, for Buhari to lock him up for corruption?
Splashme: The first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, on Tuesday, said that the cancellation of the Lagos metroline project in 1985 was a major mistake and disservice to many Nigerians.
Jakande spoke in Lagos during the launch of a book which chronicled his life in politics and journalism.
The book, entitled, ‘Jakande: Leadership in Action’ is written by Dr. Bola Olaosebikan, who told the audience at the event that the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was not responsible for the cancellation of the project.
Jakande said, “Reflecting on the metroline project, I think it is a major disservice to many Nigerians. Imagine how many people would have benefitted. It would have made life easier and changed the face of transport in Lagos. Whoever cancelled it or gave the advice towards its cancellation didn’t do right.”
The former governor asked Nigerians not to vote for unserious leaders in the coming polls, saying the elections presented Nigerians with a good opportunity that should not be squandered.
Expressing the hope that Nigeria would soon overcome its developmental challenges, Jakande said hope would be actualised faster if credible people emerged as leaders in the next dispensation.
He said, “This book comes at a very auspicious time in Nigeria’s history as we need leaders who can act. We need leaders who would not compromise the standards of good governance. God has blessed this nation the most in Africa, although we have not reached where we should be; with the right leaders, Nigeria would overcome its challenges.”
Tinubu initiated these projects and made sure his successors did not deviate from the projects. Very visionary. Btw, which projects did Atiku and Obi initiate and made sure their successors continued with? These are my own parameters for comparing the three of them. These are real Legacy projects that outlasts Tinubus tenure not some fictitious achievements some obidients spew about their Messiah. Imagine if Tinubu had been president since 1999.
Why are you avoiding the big elephant in the room- corruption and looting? Isn’t that surprising because of your constant complaints about subsidies
Has Lagos not taken heavy loans and charging high prices for the rail, despite huge IGR squeezed out of the public? The issue of whether other states and the FCT can sustain a light rail system should be about the population, particularly the population density in their cities and how wealthy people are in a widespread manner.
How much loans did Jakande take to start the rail project in 1983 before Buhari cancelled it after his coup that was the only successful one against democracy? How much IGR was Jakande squeezing out of the public to loot, for Buhari to lock him up for corruption?
NO state is going to follow Lagos, because they don't have access to the funds Lagos has...and even with Lagos funds, it took Lagos 15 years to do two out of seven lines.
If a state tried it, North or south...they would have to take heavy loans, and to pay back those loans, they would have to charge high prices for the rail.
Nigeria is not a rich nation. Even Lagos, they are using second hand rolling stock, and it still cost them a whole lot of money.
Negativity is an incurable curse, it kills whosoever is infected.
The money stolen by Diezaini Allison-Madueke will construct railway all over the country not to talk of the one stolen by ex-convict High Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Chief Mrs. imPatience Jonathan, Atiku Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and other generational looters
RichBoy247:
Negativity is an incurable curse, it kills whosoever is infected.
The money stolen by Diezaini Allison-Madueke will construct railway all over the country not to talk of the one stolen by ex-convict High Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Chief Mrs. imPatience Jonathan, Atiku Abubakar, Olusegun Obasanjo and other generational looters
The much GREATER amount stolen by Tinubu will provide pipe borne water to all Lagosians instead of falling sick from drinking shitty water.
Lawmaker scores Lagos Water Corporation low
A Lagos State lawmaker, Mr Saka Fafunmi, on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction at the performance of the state Water Corporation.
Fafunmi, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA), said in Ikeja that the corporation had not been able to justify statutory allocations to it.
The lawmaker, who represents Ifako-Ijaiye Constituency 1 at the assembly, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He said that the corporation had the capacity to generate much fund internally through water rates but had relied solely on government funding because of poor performance.
'' Anyone that is using water will be willing to pay for it; the corporation has not been giving us water.
"Is there any new community that Water Corporation has given water? People depend on boreholes; even government estates have industrial boreholes.
"Why do we keep pumping money into an agency that does not give us the desired results?'' he asked.
He noted that the Adiyan Waterworks was located at Ifako-Ijaiye, where many of the residents had resorted to digging boreholes as a means of getting water.
''A lot of people are falling sick because they don't drink clean water.
''In the same compound, where you have sewage, is where you have a borehole.
''There is no way you can manage the sewage that it will not leak and pollute the water; everyone drinking such is drinking contaminated water,'' he said.
The lawmaker urged the corporation to increase water reticulation and supply to residents.
