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By Moshood Adebayo
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday, said the plan of his administration to transform Oshodi into a world-class transport interchange in the next 13 to 16 months would go a long way to depict the regeneration project of the state.
He also assured that the project would end all notorious activities associated with the area.
Ambode, who spoke at Lagos House in Ikeja, during a meeting with stakeholders on the planned transport interchange, said by the time the project is delivered, fear of insecurity would have been totally removed from the area.
He pledged that residents of the state would have access to facilities compared to any in the world.
Leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), market associations and community leaders attended the event which was a follow-up to an earlier forum organised by the state government through the office of the special adviser to the governor on urban development.
Urging the stakeholders to support the project, which is billed to take off on June 1, Ambode said the interest of market men and women and transporters had been taken care of. He said they would make more money on completion of the project.
He said: “I am so happy that we are working together on this project. What we are doing today is what we have been planning for long and our plan is to transform some notorious areas in the state to places like Victoria Island. Oshodi is known for all kinds of notorious activities and we want to totally do away with that belief and the best way to go about it is to give the people world-class facility and make them to live better lives.”
Putting the cost of the project at over N22.4 billion ($70 million), he enthused that it was meant to transform the state to reflect its status as African modern mega city.
The governor said the Oshodi Transport Interchange will lead to the construction of three world-class terminal that will curb indiscriminate parking and picking up of passengers by road sides by commercial bus drivers.
Describing Oshodi as the busiest transport interchange in West Africa, the governor said over 200,000 passengers board buses daily in the area.Ambode frowned at the current situation of things in Oshodi, which he said often lead to chaotic situations including high human and vehicular traffic, illegal markets, as well as environmental and sanitation issues among other issue of security challenges.
“We want the people in Oshodi to be identified with good and not bad things all the time and, that was what made us to decide that the kind of development going on in Victoria Island, Lekki and other places should take place in Oshodi as well. I mean, I find it very disturbing that our children in Oshodi would have to travel to Lekki or Ikeja to have access to good shopping malls. So, what we have decided is to regenerate Oshodi.”
He said there was a plan to provide about 800 modern buses that would run 24/7 and would convey Lagosians to all parts of the state in a more comfortable arrangement.
