Sanwo-Olu issues marching order to contractors to deliver Red line Rail before end of 2023

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday issues marching order to all contractors handling the Red Line Rail to deliver the project before the end of 2023.

Sanwo-Olu spoke after touring the various Red Line Rail stations in different parts of Lagos.

The governor visited the Iju, Agege, Ikeja, Yaba and Ebute Metta Stations to inspect logistics for the near kick-off of the Redline Rail project.

“In all we have seen the Station furniture, we have seen the state of platforms and we have noticed that there are some works to do, especially around cleaning up all of the illegal activities that have been conducted on the rail track which shouldn’t be and some final approach around pedestrian bridge that we need to clean up and finish and and the general clean up of all the stations.

“In all, I think am very impressed with the level of works of all the contractors working on our Red line rail corridor, we believe we are still on track to see how we can finish before the end of this year and that’s what we are committed to, real work tirelessly round the clock to see how that will happen, especially when if we can be very hard on enforcement, enforcement to ensure that we can prevent intruders from our rail corridor; that is the most important information that we want to take away today,” he said.

The governor said he had appealed to people trading on the rail tracks to vacate as his administration had declared zero tolerance to such activities.

“There has to be a change in our attitude and way of life, because this rail line is not like the blue line that is elevated, so we have a lot of work to do to ensure people are not in any way on the rail track, significantly we have walled off the most part  of the rail track using wire mesh or you will notice that we, may probably have to go back to proper concrete wall because the wire mesh they have started breaking them and opening them up, so we have taken a decision on that,” he said.

The governor added that he had noticed the construction of the vehicular bridges, with some of them completed 100 percent.

“The bridge at Ikeja Along is completed, Yaba is completed and the one at Ebute Metta is also completed. What we will be doing before we launch the areas lime is to give vehicular relief to the citizens and the first bridge that we will be opening is Yaba bridge which we will do in the month of October, we will do that so passengers can use the bridge; we will go to Ikeja Along two weeks after and Ebute Metta at a later date,” he said.

Sanwo-Olu added that his administration is still expecting one or two bridges that would be built between the state government and the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) “which we are sharing the rail corridor with. We both have responsibility, to build vehicular bridges so that it doesn’t impact the rails that we are moving.

“We have done all our own and they have all started, but we all need to activate work so that we can finish it fully. We are on track, because all our cowry cards will all be used on the rail and it will be the same mode of payment. You don’t need any other means of payment other than your Cowry card that you’re using on your BRT, Lagferry, Blue rail; all of that are part of the components that we are doing and we are installing CCTV cameras and we are taking to vendors that already take massive commercial spaces.”

According to the governor, “what you see in places all over the world, a train station is usually a place of congregation, a terminal for people to interact and engage and that is why a train station is very big. I there say from the history that we have, that the Ikeja Station will be the biggest train station in the whole of Africa and it’s bigger than all other stations that we have in Europe and America.

“The whole idea is that we want to bring citizens conversation onto the rail terminal where you are going to see a lot of commercial activities, where small businesses will thrive and passengers too will come and do few shopping after coming down from their train.”

Sanwo-Olu said his government is on track to fulfilling its promises to the citizens to deliver two rail infrastructure “and we thank God that we have delivered Blue rail and I want to say that the phase 2 of blue line has been awarded and the contractor has since moved to site.

“We are believing that the phase 2 of the blue line will even happen faster than we did in the first place, this a commitment that we are reiterating and it will happen by the grace of God and it will happen in the life of this government and we will complete it.”

He added that the “Red line is also on track and you see that a lot of citizens are excited that they are waiting for us to be able to commission it, but we cannot take any safety measure for granted everything must be ready and ready to go and the I’s must be dotted and T’s must be crossed and that’s why I have taken time to come out today again and give all the contractors marching orders to push forward and go and start cleaning up, and doing completion.”