By Moses Akaigwe
One of the highpoints of the recent media parley organised by the Lagos State Ministry of Information was the statistics released by one of the agencies – the Lagos Bus Service Limited (LBSL) – which showed that it moved no fewer than 53 million passengers in the last five years.
At the forum hosted by the Commissioner for Transportation Oluwaseun Osiyemi, LBSL, which commenced operations five years ago to assist in alleviating the transportation challenges in Lagos, also said that it plans to expand its bus fleet from the current 300 units to 500 cleaner energy vehicles by 2030.
This was disclosed by Mr. Idowu Oguntona, managing director, LBSL, at the media parley.
Oguntona stated that the company was mandated to provide modern, safe and reliable public transportation for Lagosians, ensuring multi-modal and integrated public transportation using the cowrie.
At present, Oguntona explained that the company had about 300 buses under its control, which covers essentially all the local government areas in the state.
According to the managing director, the company had in the last two months moved no fewer than 2,000,000 people, while 1,880 Lagosians are engaged by the agency with 10 per cent of them females.
Oguntona further said: “Our service is all-inclusive and everybody can benefit from it. What have we done in the last two months,- May 2024 till date, is that we have moved about two million Lagosians. We also have a well-equipped training school where all our drivers are trained from minimal to advanced level.
“We have been able to train about 1,600 Lagosians, giving them necessary skills and all of them right now are employed. Between May and now, we have also trained about 20 people. We tailor our programme towards Lagos State Action Plan. We have also developed Vision: 2030, which is to provide environmental-friendly vehicles for Lagosians.
“Between now and 2030, the company should scale up to 500 buses, with some of them running on renewable energy; Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). We are very much in compliance with the T.H.E.M.E. Agenda by ensuring that we provide public transportation that can compare with any modern country across the world.”
In his remarks at the media parley, Mr. Olalekan Bakare-Oni, General Manager, Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA), informed the guests that for the first half of 2024, the agency impounded 9,370 vehicles with more than half of them as commercial buses (Danfos).
Bakare-Oni said that about 5,101 commercial buses were impounded within the six months period.
According to him, the authority had cleared a total number of 517 accidents across the state between January and June, stressing that 440 of such accidents were minor with 256 casualties within the period.
The LASTMA GM: “We give training on emotional intelligence, leadership skill, advanced traffic management and others to our men through consultants and we also do weekly internal training for them.
“These are parts of the trajectory to reposition the agency for a better service delivery. On July 9, 2024, the agency commissioned a whistle-blowing app and also upgraded our research department and a toll-free line.”
The Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) also stated that the Lagos Rail Mass Transit (LRMT) Red Line would begin operations in the last quarter of 2024.
The Managing Director of LAMATA, Mrs. Abimbola Akinajo, in her account at the occasion said that Redline rail was 99 per cent ready
Akinajo who was represented by Mr. Olasukanmi Okusaga, the Director for Rail, LAMATA, said the technical test run for the redline system had commenced, ahead of September.
She said: “The train will be having four trips per day from Oyingbo to Agbado 8.30a.m. in the morning, 12.30p. m. in the afternoon and this will run for four weeks,” she said.
According to her, the trains would carry different groups of passengers for the testing period with the hope of getting feedback from their experience.
Full passenger operations would be 20 trips daily, she said.
Mrs. Adebisi Adelabu, the General Manager, Lagos State Parking Authority (LASPA), in her comment, said that enforcement for on-street parking was yet to commence.
She clarified that the on-street parking was not for churches alone, but for everyone, including restaurants, shopping malls and other religious organisations.
She explained that the fees would range from N200 to N1,000 per hour, depending on the area.
Also, Mr. Rasheed Muri-Okunola, the General Manager, Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVAA), pointed out that in the last two months, the agency had focused its attention on seamless delivery of its services to its clients across the state with enhanced automation systems.
Muri-Okunola also explained that the agency was working to reduce the delivery time of faded plate numbers from 48hrs to 36hrs.
“We are also working on you getting your faded plate numbers easily, whereby you can order your plates, upload your documents and get it within 36 hours from the initial 48 hours period, working in partnership with Lagos State plate number manufacturing authority.
“In the last two months, automation basically is what we focus on. We have several centres that are attending to the people,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Sola Giwa, Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, said that the Bus Reform Initiative (BRI) of the state was to ensure safety, effective and efficient transportation for commuters in the state.
Giwa insisted that the transportation business would no longer be all comers affair in the state, noting that the government would streamline the sector for improved efficiency, starting from the Lekki-Epe axis.
“What we have in that axis is several people in public transportation business without control. But what we are saying is that transportation is a big business, serious business and not for all comers.
“We need scientific data gathering to know what is required of Lagos road users. What we are doing in that axis is that we are removing Korope (mini-buses) and tricycles from that express. They should not ply that express road again. We will change the orientation and create standards by ensuring that they go for registration.
“For the Danfos, they will need to upgrade their vehicles to a very standard and certified by the Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), their drivers will also go to a drivers institute, come under an operator and register with LAMATA and then, they can operate. Also, they will be our approved colour. They will also be using our cowrie card to pay.”