To ease transportation problems in Lagos, the state government through the Bus Rapid Transportation, BRT, is set to inject 400 more buses coupled with the already existing 154 buses on roads in the state. Commissioner for Transportation, Kayode Opeifa, who stated this at the annual ministerial press briefing in Lagos yesterday, added that on the existing BRT corridors, the buses move about 180,000 people daily. He said when fully expanded, the buses should move about 400,000 people daily.
“In 2007, we inherited the introduction of the BRT system from the visionary government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “We completed the construction of Africa’s first BRT Lite corridor which is today one of the world’s most affordable BRT system on the Mile 12 – CMS through Ikorodu road, Funsho Williams Avenue and Eko Bridge, a total of 22 km. “We have since extended the corridor to Ikorodu town by an additional 13.5 km. We are set to inject about 400 buses to the 154 currently running. “On the existing corridor, we move about 180,000 on daily basis and when fully expanded, we hope to move an average of 400,000 people daily.
“We recently injected 100 air-conditioned buses and hope to increase the air-conditioned buses to 250 before the end of 2015. We are proud to say that the 100 air-conditioned buses are locally assembled just as the last 500 additional buses in 2014 were assembled in Nigeria.” The commissioner also revealed that about 289,371 erring vehicles were impounded by the Lagos State government in the last four years. A breakdown of the figure shows that 81,694 vehicles were impounded by the Lagos Vehicle Inspection Service, VIS, while the remaining 207,677 vehicles were impounded by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA. He appealed to public and private estates in Lagos to grant access to operators of yellow buses, adding that the operators are safer to deal with since the state government has information about their address and those who own them.
He said the state government will provide the information about the yellow buses wherever there is any infraction, adding that it is safer to deal with them than private cab operators. He said the state government has been able to reduce death from 192 per year to maximum of six per year. Opeifa said the government noticed a decrease in accidents since January 2012, both in reported death cases and injuries. He said motor vehicle related accidents also reduced since 2012, adding that in 2013, it was reduced by 28-31 per cent, and in 2014 by 31-37 percent.
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