The much anticipated $1.2 billion Blue Line light rail project under construction on the Lagos-Badagry corridor faces yet another setback as it can no longer meet the December 2016 completion date.
BusinessDay can reveal that the construction work will not be completed until the middle of 2017 while actual commercial take-off is likely to be sometime in early 2018, as against December 2016 earlier projected by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. The failed completion date is one of many projected in the past which could not be realised.
This further slows down business and personal convenience of teeming corporates and individuals who had invested in real estate along the Lagos-Badagry corridor, on the calculation of the speed and reach and quality of commuting that the light rail would provide. The rail line spans 27.5 kilometres from Okokomaiko to Marina and the shuttle from end-to- end will take 25 to 30 minutes as against two to three hours by the yellow commercial buses.
This has prompted a significant upsurge in real estate development and attendant services, causing a hike in property rates along the corridor.
With an estimated 20 million residents and still growing, Lagos is bursting at the seams and populations are constantly seeking new settlements which offer decent and affordable dwellings, cheap and efficient transportation as well as security. Among the residential estates on Okokomaiko/Badagry axis are Agbra Estate, Honeydew Estate, Suncity Estate, Sparklight Estate and Teju Royal Garden.
Investigations further reveal that the state government is yet to secure a buy-in from a concessionaire for the project. The plan, it was learnt, was to get a private investor who would operate the Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) upon its completion, to partly contribute to funding the construction work. But this has been elusive since 2012, leaving the state government to struggle to fund the project from its internal revenues and commercial loans and bonds.
Sources within Lagos State Government and the contractor- China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) who craved anonymity, said some six more months would be required to complete phase 1 of the construction work which is gradually moving towards the end of the Marina shoreline.
An insider told BusinessDay that Governor Ambode was not properly briefed on the project before making his public pronouncement in February about the rail rolling by December.
“The governor is eager to see the completion of the project, but he was not fully briefed on its enormous challenges before he picked the December 2016 completion date,” the source said, adding that for about five months, very little was done because the contractor discovered there was a gas pipeline on the Right of Way of the rail project. This the source said resulted in time consuming talks with the gas pipeline operator, on where to move that facility. “This was never envisaged,” said the source.
The source further said that although there is now improved funding for the project, compared to the immediate past, there are however challenges that would make it impossible to meet the December deadline.
“There are properties along the Marina shoreline which needed to be moved. Also, the plan was for a concessionaire to partly contribute to funding the project, but this has not happened. But now, the government is looking for a management company. I can tell you that the construction work will be completed in 2017, and should roll by 2018 upon securing a management company,” said the source.
The project started by the former governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, in 2009, and inherited by the current governor, Ambode is a 27.5 kilometre line from Okokomaiko in the Lagos hinterland to Marina on the Lagos Island city centre. But the government for now is concentrating on the phase 1, Mile 2 to Marina.
The light rail, projected to move 400,000 passengers daily, has the potential to change the face of public transportation in Nigeria’s densely populated and traffic jam infested commercial city, but the long delays seem to be eroding residents’ expectations after eight years of waiting to see the change.
Adewale Ojo, a resident of Festac Town, reacts. “This is one project that elicited much hope at the beginning. Unfortunately, that initial expectation and excitement has faded,” said, Ojo who believes the project has been unduly delayed.
Steve Ayorinde, the Lagos State commissioner for information and strategy, when contacted, also confirmed that the light rail would not be ready by December.
The Blue Line is a component of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway project being expanded from four lanes to ten, with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) running in the middle. The road project was projected in 2008, to cost about N220 billion.
JOSHUA BASSEY
