The Lagos Red Line train will be launched in February, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State.l has said.
Speaking during the Lagos West Senatorial District Town Hall Meeting at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Sheraton, Ikeja, the governor stated that the state government had formally notified President Bola Tinubu of the unveiling scheduled for February in a letter.
He said: “Our Red Line rail will be unveiled in February. In fact, we have written officially to Mr President to come and help us unveil it in February this year.”
He disclosed that the construction would be in phases, adding that the state government had done extensive work on the 4th Mainland Bridge.
Sanwo-Olu stated that the government had reached the final dot of the construction of the bridge, saying that only few buildings would be demolished during the construction of the 4th Mainland Bridge.
He said landlords and tenants who would be affected would be compensated.
In his words: “We’ve done extensive work on the bridge. But we are at the crossroads of where to get the real financing for that kind of project. We’ll need to be very very creative.
“Our commitment is that within this first quarter, meaning that by the end of March or April, we should break grounds to start the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge.”
The governor also announced that N50 billion has been budgeted and would be distributed to support vulnerable residents of the state to cushion the effect of the harsh economy and take people out of poverty.
Sanwo-Olu said his administration was committed to building the state and leave it bigger and better, saying he would not be distracted by the court cases.
He urged those who challenged his election to come forward to join him in taking Lagos to the next level, if the issues were about Lagos progress, adding that his second term is a season of doubling up, working faster, harder to achieve more for the residents of the state.
The governor noted that though the infrastructure gap in Lagos is huge but they are sumountable.
He added that while the Red and Blue rail lines cut across Lagos West and Central Senatorial districts, plans are on to execute the green and purple lines are for Lagos East Senatorial district.
The governor also said that before the end of the year, the Federal Government would handover 150 electric buses and that the state hoped to procure additional 1,000 electric buses.
According to him, the government is working with some investors to achieve the procurement of the electric buses, stressing that it was part of achieving zero emissions by 2050.
The governor also said that conversation on the airport being planned for Ibeju-lekki area of the state has reached an advanced stage and that work would start soon.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, explained that the town hall meeting was part of the open door policy of the Sanwo-Olu administration and his passion to deliver good governance to the residents.
According to him, Sanwo-Olu runs the government like a company with various shareholders who looked forward to huge dividends at the end of every financial year, after investing their resources in the company.
“The philosophy of the Sanwo-Olu/Hamzat Administration is that for democracy to maintain its essence, the active involvement of the people in governance must be encouraged and, indeed, deliberately courted. This is because the citizens are the bedrock of democracy.
“It is, therefore, in furtherance of this principle that we are gathered here today to further promote our agenda of running an all-inclusive government through the instrumentality of the THEMES Plus Agenda – the six-pillar development plan of the administration.
“Why are we just holding a town hall meeting? Was it really feasible? We actually planned to engage Lagosians this way, but several unanticipated – and unprecedented – occurrences, such as COVID-19 and #EndSARS, stalled previous attempts at holding the Town Hall meetings regularly during this administration’s first term in office. Besides, we also had the elections and the campaigns that preceded them,” he stated.
Omotoso said it must, however, be stressed that the government had always been engaging Lagosians via several official and unofficial platforms.