Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode says his administration plans to unveil 5,000 new commercial buses within the next six months.

Ambode who was speaking when hosting students of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School of Government, United States of America said buses would be unveiled under the Bus Reform Initiative.

According to him, the 5000 new buses would be the first step by his administration to change the existing transportation system predominantly driven by the yellow buses, popularly known as danfo.

The Governor said: “In the last one year, we have decided that we must integrate rail, road water and air transportation systems in such a way that the system of connectivity is improved upon and I would like to have a direct partnership on how that can actually be actualised.

“Right now we are cleaning out all the yellow buses you see in the State. As we proceed in the next six months and a span of three years, we are introducing 5000 new buses of European standard to actually clean up the city because if you want to grow the economy of Lagos, transportation is key and then it’s a major infrastructure for tourism itself.”

Governor Ambode noted that the dependence on road transportation in the last two decades, as the major means of transportation in the State has give rise to a chaotic system where about eight million Lagosians commute across the State every minute.

“The question is how do you move 23 million people on a daily basis from point A to point B with ease and comfort? So the way the city has been so designed in the last few years, the city has actually concentrated on only one mode of transportation, which is road transportation. There has not been any comprehensive planning to integrate all the modes of transportation in a way that makes it easy.

“There are eight million people walking on the streets of Lagos every minute, did we create more points for them. The answer is no. We have one-fifth of the State on water, are we doing effective water transportation, the answer is no. The rail system is still under construction in such a way that it can move mass number of people from one point to another. That is why we have a whole lot of congestion on the road.”

Besides, Governor Ambode said that State Government had made series of intervention to improve road transportation network through the creation of more bus terminals, lay bys, bus stops to accommodate the eventual take off of the Bus Reform Initiative.

The Governor also disclosed that the reforms in the water transportation system was ongoing and would take off fully within the next six to nine months, as a means to encourage residents to utilise it as an alternative means of transportation.

Governor Ambode also listed urban migration as one of the major challenges his administration was contending with just as he revealed that about 86 persons enter into Lagos on a daily basis without any plan to go back.

He said the attending consequence of such migration was evident on the State’s healthcare system as well as the 13,000 tonnes of waste generated daily in the State on a daily basis, saying that his administration however must continue to think outside the box to provide solutions to such infrastructural challenges.

“People fly in from Ghana to come and use our hospitals here in Lagos. So we now have to sit down beyond what we have learnt in school to look at the practical challenges of urban migration and good governance and things we have to mitigate against a population that is unaccounted for.” Governor Ambode said. (TV360 Nigeria)