The Lagos State Blue railway line projected to cost N60 billion is single-handedly financed by the state on single-digit interest loans obtained from a few local banks.
The Lagos State Governor made his known, Sunday evening during an interview monitored by TechEconomy on Channels television.
“We are being very creative in our financing and we have single digits from Nigerian local banks.”
Lagos State Government was being supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria and three other banks – Sterling, Fidelity, and Access, for the railway project.
TechEconomy understands that the total amount the Central Bank of Nigeria made available for the project is N60 billion and had disbursed N45 billion.
This is one of the projects the apex bank and some deposit money banks are supporting under its N1trillion DCR Intervention.
The Governor assured residents that work had progressed on the blue and red rail lines in Lagos.
He explained that the blue line would be launched first in December this year, after which the red rail line would be launched in the first quarter of 2023.
He said, “All of the infrastructure would be ready. The difference is that the red line was conceived within our tenure.
We inherited the blue line and we have done a lot of development on it. Phase one of it would start from Mile 2 to Marina. Phase two is from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko.”
Sanwo-Olu said the second phase of the blue line was at the ground level and quicker for the government to lay the tracks.
He also revealed that the red line would stretch from Agbado to Ebute Meta, while phase two would be over the lagoon to Marina at some time in the future.
To Unveil 4 Other Rail lines
In that interview, he said that four new rail lines would be unveiled in the state before the end of the year, but they are still conducting feasibility studies on the viability of the new rail lines.
He said, “We have four other lines that we are doing an extensive feasibility study on.
We have committed huge resources to the viability and they should be ready before the end of the year. We are the only sub-national doing a rail by itself.
