| Governor Fashola and his key officials that visited Toronto, Canada last week might have settled for the purchase of 15-year-old H6s model train cars from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to operate on the Lagos light rail mass transportation project now under construction.
Babatunde Fashola was on inspection tour in Toronto Canada to inspect facilities and numbers of used subway cars currently being operated by the city’s local transportation commission. The visit allows the governor to experience first hand, the operation of the city’s underground railway lines, which was first commissioned in 1954.
The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines. In December 2010, the City of Toronto launched its new fleet of subway cars that will replace the existing ones — being considered by Lagos state. It is believed Fashola is opting for the used trains due to the high cost of buying new ones, which experts say runs into several millions of dollars . Subway cars — equivalent of trains — are series of connected railroad cars used for intra city (urban) transportation, usually underground and operated by electricity.
The Lagos train system, christened Blue Line, will run from Okokomaiko in the west of Lagos to CMS in Central Lagos and is expected to provide alternative transportation for thousands of Lagosians moving from the western axis of the city to the city centre everyday.The infrastructure will consist of 27km of double track, 13 passengers stations, and a 1250-metre 4-track bridge.The Blue line will be the first of 7 light rail transit that will eventually comprise the Lagos urban rail network.The trains will travel at speeds up to 100 kilometres an hour, running at five-minute intervals at peak hours.
Already substantial work has begun on the project between the National Theatre in Iganmu and Mile 2. According to a recent 2011 Monthly Progress Report on the project, all the columns for the concourse at the Lagos end of the Rail line have been completely cast to the Alaba Station’s elevated level with the concretes currently being cured while the superstructure work on the Station is still in progress. The construction is being handled by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), working seven days a week on the site. CPCS Transcom Ltd., an Ottawa-based company, serves as lead adviser to the project. CPCS provides the conceptual design, business strategy and preliminary engineering, and is now the adviser for the Lagos government in its negotiations with the private company that will operate the transit line.
Currently, at its construction stage, over 4,000, are engaged at various skills level on the light rail project while over 8,000 Nigerians will be engaged to work on the system when it takes off. For now, thousands are also engaged in a secondary economy - supplying raw material inputs, food and refreshments to those working at the sites.
The $1.12-billion project, is the first modern light-rail systems in sub-Saharan Africa. A governance monitoring group, Citizen Affairs, has shown keen interest in the project, tasking the state government to publish details of projected overall cost of the ongoing project and regularly update stockholders and Lagosians on its development
Governor Fashola, who had said during the campaigns that the inspection would take place once the elections were over, is being accompanied on the inspection tour by the Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze, his Science and Technology counterpart, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, the Special Adviser for Works, Engineer Ganiyu Johnson, the Managing Director of the Metropolitan Area and Transport Authority (LAMATA) and the Director General of the Public Private Partnership Office, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi.
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