Oshodi terminal to address traffic, environmental problems

The Managing Director, Planet Projects, Mr. Biodun Otunola, has expressed optimism that the Oshodi Transport Interchange to be commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari today would ease the incessant gridlock in the state.

Speaking with journalists yesterday, Otunola noted that the transport interchange would reduce the rate of criminality and traffic environmental.

He said the interchange with three terminals, each sitting on 30,000 sq metres, when operational, would serve at peak an average of one million people. “Initially, each of the terminals would serve 300,000 passengers daily and every hour, 300 buses would be departing from the terminals.”

For the comfort of the passengers, he said the three terminals, with multi-layer floors, would have lifts and elevators to ensure commuters can easily move from one floor to another. He further said this was aside the other terminals linked by skywalk to ensure passengers could easily navigate the entire interchange, moving from one point to another with ease.

He said for passengers not to wait endlessly for buses, two layover parks were created with the capacity to accommodate 70 buses, waiting to load at every point. He also said there would be room for park and ride, the reason a park was created, in addition to a taxi park so that the buses coming from the layover do not obstruct free flow of traffic when they need to connect Terminals 1 and 2.

He added that two tunnels had been incorporated into the project, where the buses from the layover would be driven through to connect the terminals.

Otunola said the idea behind turning the interchange into a tourist attraction is to rebrand Oshodi. For him, when completed, any person who visits Lagos and has not made a stopover at the interchange has not visited the state.