The Lagos State Government ( LASG) on Friday unveiled a policy that would provide a framework within which transport infrastructure and services would be efficiently deployed in the state.
The Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Ladi Lawanson, unveiled the policy before relevant stakeholders at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa Ikeja.
He said that the policy, when eventually adopted would ensure that the sector complies with international security and safety standards.
Lawanson in his remarks commended the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, for his commitment to the sector.
He said that the forum was to enable the team of consultants midwifing the document to collate opinions from other stakeholders.
“The document is in tandem with the government’s avowed commitment to continual improvement of the citizens’ welfare as it touches on other modes of transportation, hitherto, unfathomed into the state’s transportation subsector.
“Essentially, through the document, we shall seek to provide a framework within which transport infrastructure and services can be used efficiently.
“This will lead to a safe and environmentally friendly manner of operations capable of buoying the private sector’s confidence to invest in and improve upon,” he said.
The commissioner said that the policy was the first in the history of the state and, indeed, the country.
He stressed that despite all government’s strides in promoting public transportation, there had never been a policy regulating the sector.
Dr Tajudeen Kayode, the Dean of the School of Transportation Studies, Lagos State University, (LASU), said the policy would, among others, establish an agency – Lagos Transport Authority (LTA), which would regulate all modes of transportation in the state.
Prof. Samuel Odewunmi, Dean of the School of Transportation in LASU highlighted the institutional framework for the policy.
He said that all the agencies operating within the transportation sector should be brought under one umbrella for maximum supervision, coordination and regulation.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Olufemi Salaam , said the policy was to complement the various initiatives being put together by the government to promote safe, and affordable public transportation.
Salaam said that when fully in place, the policy would help promote safety of lives and properties across all the identified modes to which the government was committed to explore.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 35 suggestions from 25 stakeholders would be included in the document.
Among such initiatives identified was the place of none motorised mode of transportation, improved access to public transportation by the aged and people living with disabilities.
It would also include how to enforce guidelines that would aim at sanitising the operations of commercial (yellow) buses and their operators, especially, the agbero (tout) system as well as motorcycles and tricycle operations in the state. (NAN)