For investors and prospective homeowners who own properties along Lagos-Badagry Expressway, it is a piece of good news as the Federal and Lagos State governments have expressed commitment to completing the seemingly abandoned expressway.
The Lagos State government in 2009 undertook the reconstruction and expansion of the expressway from six to 10 lanes, prompting many residents of the sprawling city to take economic position on the expressway by buying landed properties and developing same into individual homes or estates.
Besides individual investments, institutions like Abbey Mortgage Bank have estates on the expressway. Abbey has an estate where it is offering three-bedroom bungalows for sale. MIDC Limited also has a sprawling estate that has about 750 housing units of different types for sale. Other companies like CMB Investment and Next Dimension Limited have gated estates where plots of land are sold to prospective homeowners and long-term investors.
All these investments are today abandoned at varying stages of development following the stoppage of work on the expressway by the Lagos State government, citing paucity of funds.
But hope is in the air again with feelers from both levels of government. The federal government says the expressway will benefit from the proposed N2.28 trillion budget for capital expenditure in 2019. It is expected that when the budget is approved and signed, work would resume on the expressway.
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has repeatedly assured that the completion of the expressway would be his priority on assumption of office.
“The ongoing 60-kilometre Lagos-Badagry Expressway project being executed by the state government must be completed as early as possible. The expressway is so critical to the economy of Lagos that no effort must be spared to ensure their early completion,” Sanwo-Olu’s running mate, Obafemi Hamzat, assured during an interactive session with journalists.
He noted that the project had two major intermodal transport schemes namely, the Expressway and the Light Rail Mass Transit with their accompanying infrastructure. It is a 10-lane superhighway taking off from Eric Moore interchange, traversing westwards through Orile Iganmu, Alaba Oro, Mile 2, Festac, Agboju, Iyana Iba, Okokomaiko, Iyana Era, Ijanikin, Agbara, Ibereko and terminates in Badagry.
“The goal is to connect Lagos with the ECOWAS countries. The initiative would, no doubt, enhance the commercial and other business activities between the affected neighbouring countries,” Hamzat said.
What this means is that all the properties along that expressway whose value has dropped significantly, will start appreciating while all building projects that have been abandoned will be re-started. The most significant thing that will happen is the relocation of many people from the city centre, leading to decongestion and less pressure on available facilities.
John Nwasike, who owns a two-bedroom house at Teju Royal Garden, Ijaniki, told BusinessDay that he had abandoned the house since 2016 when he could no longer cope with the gridlock on the expressway. “But, once the government completes the reconstruction, I will go back to my house”, he said with excitement.
Hamzat noted that the Lekki-Epe Expressway is as important as the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, assuring that it would also be expanded and reconstructed, especially from where it stopped now to the Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) in Akodo.
“Just like the Badagry Expressway, Lekki-Epe axis is also critical; in view of the ongoing enormous developments taking place in that axis, there is need to review the issue of Fourth Mainland Bridge. For now, the bridge project must be put in abeyance, because technical reports from experts revealed that the volume of traffic along that axis cannot cope with additional ones that the 4th Mainland Bridge will engender,” he said.
Continuing, he said, “What we intend to do, if we form government, is to begin the construction of Coastal Roads from Ajah axis to Ibeju-Lekki, and possibly complete the abandoned portion of the Expressway from Ibeju to Epe; linking it to Ijebu-Ode, where trucks and other articulated vehicles coming to LFTZ would avoid Ijebu-Ode-Itoikin road.”
