Akinwunmi
Ambode, governor of Lagos State, says he has plans to take commercial
buses popularly known as Danfo off Lagos roads before the end of the
year.
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Monday, insisted plans
are afoot to remove yellow buses popularly known as Danfo from Lagos
roads for a more efficient, well-structured and world class mass
transportation system that would facilitate ease of movement within the
city.
The Governor also said that his administration would soon roll out a
comprehensive environmental sanitation policy that would make the city
to be clean without much burden on the people in terms of taxes.
Speaking at the 14th Annual Lecture of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) held at Muson Centre in Onikan with the theme: “Living Well Together, Tomorrow: The Challenge Of Africa’s Future Cities,” Governor
Ambode admitted that the present connectivity mode in Lagos was not
acceptable and befitting for a mega city, and as such a well-structured
transportation mode would soon be put in place to address the challenge.
“When I wake up in the morning and see all these yellow buses
and see Okada and all kinds of tricycles and then we claim we are a mega
city, that is not true and we must first acknowledge that that is a
faulty connectivity that we are running.
“Having accepted that, we have to look for the solution and
that is why we want to banish yellow buses this year. We must address
the issue of connectivity that makes people to move around with ease and
that is where we are going.
“For instance, people going from Ikorodu to CMS have started
leaving their cars at home because the buses are very convenient and so
why can’t we do that for other places? Yes, we don’t have the money to
do that but we can go to the capital market and then improve on the
technology of collection of fares and that will encourage investors and
then the city will change,” Governor Ambode said.
He said government was also embarking on massive reform in waste
management system, expressing optimism that the plan will fully be
actualized by July this year.
He said: “We are also embarking on massive reform in the waste
and sanitation management system. I don’t like the way the city is and
the Private Sector Participants (PSP) collectors are not having enough
capacity to do it but again should I tax people to death, the answer is
no. I don’t want to tax people and so we need this partnership with the
private sector so that they can invest in the sanitation management of
the city and in no time maybe by July, the city will change forever.”
The Governor, who recalled the massive infrastructures being put in
place in critical sectors of the Lagos economy such as transport
sector, road construction and rehabilitation, construction of lay-bys,
and flyovers among others, said the main objective of his administration
remained the growth of the Lagos economy from 5th to 3rd largest
economy in Africa.
Source: AkinwumniAmbode.com
No comments:
Post a Comment