Sanwo-Olu looks away as Mile 2 taints transport ambition

Babjide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, seems to be looking away as Mile 2 taints the state’s multi-modal transport ambition.

The state has made significant progress in developing the multi-modal transport system with good roads, rail and water transportation infrastructure in some parts of the state.

But a collapsed spot at Mile 2—a major transport hub in the state—is negating this ambition, which was amplified recently with the groundbreaking work by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) in partnership with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) – which are handling the ‘Marina and Mile 2 Interchange Hubs.’

The interchange hubs are designed to be a central nexus for various modes of transportation, enhancing connectivity and reducing travel time for Lagos residents. This is expected to become a reality in the next 15 months, according to Abimbola Akinajo, managing director of LAMATA.

While the state and the citizens await this interchange, Mile 2 is becoming a drag for residents commuting on Lagos-Badagry Expressway due to the collapsed portion of the expressway within the stretch covered by the Mile 2 Train Station on the Badagry-bound carriageway.

Read also: Lagos blames collapsed Mile 2 road, flood on dumping of refuse in drains 

The gridlock snarl arising from this collapsed spot, which is made worse by the heavy stones, has become a major challenge for users.

While the trains and the BRT buses within the same environment enjoy smooth operations in their carefully fenced off tracks, the ubiquitous yellow buses in their noisy and disorderly fashion are out-doing one another on a rough, undulating and collapsed portion of the expressway.

The daily confusion within that short stretch of road creates in the mind of a casual visitor to the area that there is a crisis.

For that reason, motorists spend over an hour just to navigate through this stretch which, ordinarily, should not take up to five minutes. Motorists often slow down all the way from the Train Station at Alaba.

“It is clear that the government has secured the way for its train and BRT buses and therefore abandoned the road for the yellow buses. See both the train and the BRT buses are running at high speed and we are moving at a snail speed here,” an LT 300 yellow bus driver noted on Monday evening.

The driver was jittery because, according to him, he spends so much time plying that route on a daily basis. “Agbero collects money from you at different spots from where you start your trip till you get to wherever you are going and part of the money we pay, they say, is for the state government,” he said.

A passenger who was in the bus with the reporter, noted that government should see repairing that road as part of its responsibilities to the people, explaining that “because of the train and BRT bus services, the government should make the entire stretch of the expressway motorable to complement the good work they have done at Mile 2.”

Continuing, he said, “what does it cost the government to patch up this small portion of the road that has collapsed completely? Why is the government pretending that it does not know that this place has collapsed when all sorts of uniformed people are there working for the government?”

Henry Ibekwe, a public affairs commentator, noted in a chat with this reporter that Lagos State has always set itself apart from the rest of the states in Nigeria with its big projects. “Lagos dreams big in terms of development and even goes out to implement most of its projects.

“But I am surprised that sometimes they neglect small projects like patching up collapsed portions of its road infrastructure. And this is all over the place, especially outside the city centre, where a greater percentage of the population lives,” Ibekwe said.

He wondered why a state that has demonstrated capacity to execute an enviable multi-modal transport system finds it difficult to do simple palliative work on its roads.

Read also:LAMATA, AFD Break Ground on Mile 2/Marina Interchange Hubs

With a good rail transport system and a functional BRT bus service, Lagos is also developing its water transportation which it boosted recently with the commissioning of a fleet of high-capacity commercial ferries called OMI-BUS at the Badore Jetty in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state.

OMI-BUS is a collaboration between the state government and the private sector, spearheaded by Caverton Marine and designed to provide a safe, reliable and comfortable transport option.

The ferries are expected to enhance the efficiency and reliability of water transportation in Lagos, providing a vital alternative to the congested road networks. According to the governor of the state, who commissioned the ferries, it is part of the broader efforts by the state government to modernise and diversify the city transport options.

The state has train stations for its Blue Line Rail system at Marina, which compares favourable with that for the Metro Rail Line in Dubai. The stations at Mile 2 and Ikeja, along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, are also attractive and sophisticated and they contribute meaningfully to the state’s megacity dream.

Though Mile 2 is not at the city centre like Marina and Ikeja, the train station there presents an interesting spectacle of a city in motion with a functional Blue Line rail system and the BRT buses operating side-by-side, conveying a critical mass of residents from the suburb to the city centre and vice versa all-day long.