Dr. Kadri Hamzat, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos, disclosed at an interactive session that the reason for erecting the toll gate was to recover the money spent on constructing the road.
“Let us look at it this way. As to how to get back what we spent, it is a 10-lane road with service lanes. And then in the middle, there is a light rail. We have two BRT lanes. The two middle lanes will be tolled. But the service lanes will be there for those who do not want to pay toll,” he said.
According to him, the Lagos-Badagry Road was built by the Lagos State Government, before the Federal Government took over the road in 1977.
On plans by some African countries to link up with the light rail system on the road, Hamzat said it was the Vice President of Ghana who approached Governor Babatunde Fashola on the issue.
“What happened was that the Vice President of Ghana spoke to Governor Fashola on the possibility. He demanded to see the design of the project. This is to enable him see if it is possible to link up with the project,” he explained.
“It is a talk, and that has been done. That shows you the possibility. If you can take a train from London to France, even up to Germany, there is no reason we can’t do the same thing in this part of the world.
“We just need to link ourselves together like they did in Western Europe. One is happy that our leader is thinking in that line too. It will be a dream if it can happen. At least, that it is true, and it is being pursued.”
On the proposal by the state government to take over all federal roads, the commissioner said there was a communique to that effect, adding, “we were supposed to have a meeting at the Federal Ministry of Works about two weeks ago.”
“Unfortunately, a senator died and the meeting could not hold. This is one of the things we wanted to discuss. You are right. It will be a good day for us if they can cede them. But the challenge is that if you are giving us these responsibilities, then the budget of the Federal Ministry of Works must come down and be redistributed to all the states and let the state take the responsibility for these roads.”
Culled:247nigerianewsupdate
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