Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde addressing newsmen after the tour

Lagos State Government on Tuesday assured motorists and commuters that the expansion work at the Ojodu/Berger junction on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway would be completed in December.

Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde, who tour the area with top government officials said though the project was a federal one, the state government was interested because of traffic coming into Lagos.

According to him, “we will do our best to ensure that by December it would be completed,” adding that the state was passionate about transportation because it is the engine of any economy “and if transportation is not right, it is very difficult for the economy to strive; transportation touches everybody because everybody moves from one point to the other.

“This is the border between Lagos and Ogun states, obviously any traffic coming into Lagos is our concern and our interest here is to see how the various traffic agencies working here are co-ordinating the traffic here and to ensure that there is free flow of traffic.

“The agencies on ground controlling traffic and ensuring free flow of traffic are the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE).

“The three agencies were working harmoniously together to make sure there is free flow of traffic and you can see that there is no traffic, they are doing a wonderful job here.”

According to him, one of the states’ strategy to curtail the menace of commercial bus drivers as complained by the heads of the agencies was holding stakeholders meeting with NURTW and Danfo owners to talk to their drivers to comply with traffic regulation in the area.

Oladeinde appealed to commuters to be patient with the government on the expansion work on-going, saying government was trying to expand the road so that “we can create more space so that we can get traffic flowing freely, it is just a little pain, but my advise is that they should be patient with what we are doing.”

Heads of the three traffic agencies controlling traffic in the area confessed that they have been working harmoniously together to ensure free flow of traffic and that they had been able to curtail the menace of the commercial bus drivers.

The heads of the agencies are: Mr. Mathew Cyril Zango, Sector Head of Operations, Lagos State Command of FRSC; Mr. Jubril Adeyemi Oshodi, Area Commander Ojodu/Berger in charge of the project area, Lagos end, LASTMA and Mr. Ganiyu Amin, Divisional Commander, TRACE.