The Marina Express Train Service Ltd, METSL, is to collaborate with The Infrastructure Bank, TIB, to construct the proposed Lagos Metro Rail Transit, LMRT, Red Line project. Sen. Idris Umar, Minister of Transport, said this, last Friday, in Abuja at the ceding and handing over of the Right of Way, ROW, for the Iddo-Agbado Corridor for the proposed rail line.

The proposed Lagos State Mass Transit Train Services, which is named “Red Line,” will operate within the Lagos metropolis. Umar said this would significantly impact on the growth and development of the Lagos-Ogun states industrial and economic zones

He said the MTTS Red Line was projected to carry a large number of passengers per day, freeing up an estimated four to five hours productive time to each commuters on Agbado-Marina axis.

He said the project would address the transportation problems in the commercial nerve centre of the country with estimated 20 million population and also enhance economic development. Umar called for private sector collaboration in other states of the federation to facilitate further infrastructure development in the country.

“The royalties due to the NRC arising from the use of the corridor by the Lagos State government over the life of the project shall be valued. “It shall be converted to Federal Government equity in the consortium that will implement and manage the project over the concession period.

“As such, Federal Government participation will provide needed impetus for follow-up on investors and is a major investment showcase for Nigeria’s economy to global investment community,” he said. He expressed delight over the request by Lagos State Government for the Federal Government to release the Eastern section of the existing NRC Right of Way in Lagos.

“I considered it a welcome idea knowing full well that such development will boost the economic fortune of the state which will eventually spread to other states in the country. “The request was treated with dispatch with the constitution of a technical committee to look into the possibility of sharing the existing NRC rail corridor in Lagos without interruption in the operation of the corridor.

“The committee comprised representatives from Ministry of Transport, NRC, Lagos State government and Lagos Area Metropolitan Transport Authority, LAMATA,” he said. Umar explained that the technical committee, in its report, noted that the Right of Way of the existing narrow gauge rail corridor was 30 metres and could accommodate five tracks of rail lines.

The Minister said that this would be done with an integrated and well managed independent signalling and telecommunications system. He said the Federal Government also reviewed the recommendations of the technical committee and granted approval. Umar said according to the approval, the Federal Government and NRC would occupy three rail tracks of the western side of the corridor.

“The three rail tracks consist of two tracks for the proposed railway modernization project and one narrow gauge line for freight and passenger movement. “Lagos State Government and LAMATA will occupy two standard gauge two tracks on the Eastern side of the corridor for the construction and operation of the standard gauge Lagos state MTTS,” he said.

Umar said the state government would be responsible for the acquisition of Right of Way and payment of compensation to communities within Lagos area This,he said, should be when the federal government commenced the construction of the Lagos-Abuja high speed as well as the East West and Coastal rail lines to run between Lagos and Aba via Shagamu-Benin-Onitsha-Owerri.

He further said the Lagos state government would be responsible for the relocation of the NRC infrastructure from the Eastern side to the Western side of the track. He said in pursuant of the laudable project, as a leading member of the bidding Consortium, Marina Express Train Services Project, proposed a draft agreement.

Umar said the agreement was between the ministry of transport, NRC and the Lagos state government on the sharing of the equity on the ROW of the existing rail corridor between Iddo and Agbado. The agreement, he said, was for smooth and effective implementation of the federal government’s modernization and rehabilitation projects as well as the Lagos state government’s Red Line Project.

He said that the proposed draft agreement had been reviewed, vetted and scrutinized as well as sanctioned by the Ministry of Justice for execution. In his remarks, Mr Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, said the project had the capacity to generate 5,000 and over 10, 000 direct and indirect jobs respectively.

Aganga said the job creation would occur during the construction period, adding that another 3,000 and 5,000 jobs would be created directly and indirectly during operation phase. He said $2.4 billion dollars would be invested from the private sector for the construction of the rail line, adding that the mass transit would involve at least 1.8 million people daily.

Commending President Goodluck Jonathan for granting the Right of Way, he said the economic benefit of the project was huge. “People commuting from Agbado to Marina and Iddo and other places will save four to five hours productive time”. Aganga said that the project would be completed over a four-year period.

Mr Adekunle Oyinloye, the Managing Director of TIB, said that the bank was committed to successful completion of the project which would bridge tr