By CHIAZO OGBOLU

The Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) says the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line will begin operations in September.

The Managing Director of LAMATA, Mrs Abimbola Akinajo, disclosed this at a news conference organised by the Ministry of Transportation and its agencies on Tuesday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that agencies under the Ministry of Transportation gave account of their activities in the past two months.

Akinajo added that the Redline rail was 99 per cent ready and would begin operations in the last quarter of the year.

Akinajo represented by the Director for Rail, Mr Olasukanmi Okusaga, said the technical test run for the Redline system had commenced, ahead of September.

“The train will be having four trips per day from Oyingbo to Agbado 8.30 a.m. in the morning, 12.30 p. m. in the afternoon and this will run for four weeks,” she said.

Also, Mr Idowu Oguntona, the Managing Director, Lagos Bus Services Ltd. (LBSL), said that it had provided transportation to two million Lagos residents from May till date.

Oguntona added that the LBSL had a fully accredited high capacity training school for training of drivers.

“We have also established a Sustainable Policy to decarbonise our fleet and this will help us to be environmental responsible,” he said.

The Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), General Manager, Mr Rasheed Muri-Okunola, noted that the authority had automated its system to ensure seamless service delivery.

“We are working to ensure seamless delivery of service, working to get ones plate number has been reduced to 36 hours from 48 hours.

“The MVAA is working with the Lagos State Number Plate Production Authority to actualise this and we have one stop centre at Ikorodu, Lekki, Agbado and others,” he said.

Mrs Tiamiyu Afusat, General Manager, Lagos State Drivers Institute, said the institute had expanded its centre to five and had trained 236,000 drivers.

Afusat added that the institute had introduced computer based training for drivers.

She, however, appealed to organisations to enrol their drivers for such trainings.

Mrs Adebisi Adelabu of Lagos State Parking Authority said that enforcement for on-street parking had not commenced due to the fact that the authority could not do the enforcement alone.

According to Adelabu, the on-street parking is not for churches alone but for everyone and the fees will range from N200 to N1,000 per hour depending on the area.

Earlier, Mr Sola Giwa, Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, said that the Bus Reform Initiative of the state was to ensure safety, effective and efficient transportation in the state.

He said that transportation business would no longer be all comers affair, noting that government would streamline the sector for better efficiency.

Giwa said that from August, all trucks heading to Lekki axis must come under the states call-up system.

Also, the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the session was to serve as a feedback mechanism to enhance the operations of the ministry.

Osiyemi said the state government would continue to create a safe environment for the people through a functional database of everyone that entered into Lagos.

“We are trying to ensure that we get data of people that come in and go out of Lagos in our interstate parks. We have a consultant working with us.

“These parks will register with the Ministry of Transport. This affords us with planning to ensure security for the state,” he said. (NAN)

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