By Akanimo Sampson
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has officially launched the construction of its 37-km Rail Mass Transit LRMT Red Line project, which will traverse from Agbado to Marina, serving more than one million commuters on a daily basis.
Contracted by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), formerly the Foreign Aid Bureau of the Ministry of Railways, this project is the second of its kind in the state, following the LRMT Blue Line project whose implementation begun back in 2010.
Both projects are a part of the Lagos state’s ambitious Strategic Transport Master Plan that aims to meet the demands of future transportation, and the states aim to become Nigeria’s commercial and economic hub and one of the world’s fastest-growing megacities.
The LRMT Red Line project will be implemented in two phases. The first phase covers a total distance of 28km from Agbado to Oyingbo.
This phase will be sharing a track with the Federal Government’s Lagos-Ibadan Railway Modernisation Project up to Iddo, from where it will have its own dedicated track to Oyingbo.
It will be completed in two years’ time, upon which it will reduce travel time along the route from about two and a half hours to approximately 35 minutes. Its passenger capacity is 500,000 per day.
The second phase on the other hand starts from Oyingbo to Marina. The entire LRMT Red Line project is expected to be fully operational in the last quarter of next year. It will have a total of 12 stations, three of which will be along the Lagos-Ibadan Railway, six of the remaining will be constructed as independent stations at Iju, Ikeja, Oshodi, Mushin Yaba, and Oyingbo while the rest will be built at Iddo, Ebute-Ero and Marina.
