Cable Car Mass Transit, to Launch in Lagos, in 2015

The city of Lagos will get cable car mass transit, in 2015, according to an agreement, between the Lagos Government and a Nigerian cable car company, Ropeways Transport Limited. The cable car system, will be the first commercial one, in Nigeria, aside those available for tourism – in Obudu. The system will cost $500 million, and will be useful to reducing traffic and improving road safety in the Lagos, in future. Speaking on the project, the CEO of Ropeways Transport Limited, Dapo Olumide, said that, “By complementing existing transport modes, the Lagos cable car transit System will play its part in reducing the traffic congestion in the city. The existing metropolitan highway infrastructure is severely constrained, with journeys to and from work within the city regularly exceeding three hours.” “In addition, studies carried out in 2009 on vehicle registration shows that an additional 200,000 vehicles are registered annually in Lagos State. This equates to 222 vehicles per kilometer of road in Lagos, which by far, outweighs the national average of just 11 vehicles per kilometer of road, with vehicles estimated to contribute more than 70 per cent of the ambient air pollution in Lagos.” He added that, “Presently, there is need to ameliorate the existing congestion on the three bridges connecting Lagos Mainland to Lagos Island and to provide a link between Apapa and the Central Business District on Lagos Island, and also to link Victoria Island with the Central Business District of Lagos Island. These are what we hope to achieve with the launch of the cable transit system.”