Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government on Thursday terminated the franchise issued to the National Union of Road Transport Worker (NURTW) to operate a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along the Mile 12 to CMS corridor of the state.

Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Dayo Mobereola who said this in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria said government’s decision to terminate the existing franchise agreement was based on non-compliance by the first BRT cooperative run by the NURTW with operational plans stipulated in the franchise agreement they signed.

“The termination of the franchise agreement with the operator is sequel to breaches of the BRT operations Service Level Agreement (SLA) it signed with the state government despite years of discussions and engagement to ensure the SLA was adhered to.

“Though the Service Level Agreement requires a one-month notice prior to its termination, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, (LAMATA), custodian of the agreement, had indeed given a three-month notice which the operator failed to honour,” he said.

Mobereola added that government’s decision communicated to the operator was premised on the inability of the operator to offer good public transport services to commuters on the all-important BRT corridor.

According to him, “this has led to incessant complaints by members of the public over poor services provided by the operator and the deployment of vehicles not safe for use by the commuting public.”

The commissioner stated that the state government frowned at the non-operations of stipulated frequency schedules and operations of buses at below 50 per cent fleet capacity contrary to the agreement.

He said the failure of the first BRT Cooperative to comply with the terms of the franchise agreement had led to passengers experiencing poor service quality, typified by extensive waiting time and having to endure use of dilapidated and unsafe buses.

Mobereola said these breaches, which the operator had indulged in and failed to remedy despite being notified of them, had made the state government to decide to order the operator out of the corridor in the interest of the commuting public.

The commissioner said following government’s desire to sanitise bus operations along the Mile 12 to CMS corridor, it had on 29 September, 2015 served it with a notice of termination of the franchise agreement, saying the operator had pleaded for time to be able to identify other corridor before removing all its buses from the depot.