Criticisms trail proposed 69.7km Lagos Green Line Rail project

Criticisms have trailed the proposed Lagos Green Line Rail Project, which is part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Renewed Hope mega-cities Light Rail Project.

This comes after a presentation of a progress report by Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) and the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, according to a statement on Friday.

The project is expected to build ten rail stations, which will be located at Marina, Victoria Island, Lekki 1, Ajah, Lekki 2, Ogombo, Elepetu, Eluju, Lekki Airport, and Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos State.

The 69.7-kilometre metro rail route will run between the Lekki Free Trade Zone and Marina, with a direct link and station at the proposed Lekki International Airport, according to the project description.

Meanwhile, details of the presentation to Edun included six takeaways.

This includes the inclusion of the project in the 2025 Federal Budget, with approval of N196 billion, completion of the Tripartite Memorandum of Understanding signing by MOFI, the Lagos State Government, and CHEC (2024), and others.
“So far, some of the project’s progress highlights include completion of site investigation, data analysis, and research work by the CHEC team (2024); completion of the Feasibility Study Report (2024); completion of MOFI’s application to include the project in the Federal Government’s 2025 borrowing plan (2024); inclusion of the project in the 2025 Federal Budget, with approval of NGN 196 billion (2025); and preliminary approval granted for the Feasibility Study Report by MOFI and the Lagos State Government (2025),” the statement reads.

Meanwhile, an expert familiar with the development criticised the project, noting that designing the Lagos Green Line with only 10 stations on a 69.7km corridor is a guarantee that the line would have a poor ridership, like the current Blue Line.

He further stressed that the project designed to serve VI with only a single station is shortsighted.

“Designing the Lagos Green Line with only 10 stations on a 69.7km corridor is a guarantee that this line is also going to have poor ridership like the current Blue Line despite being on a high-demand corridor.

“Serving VI with only a single station is also terribly shortsighted,” he wrote on X Friday.