The Enugu State Commissioner for Transportation, Obi Ozor, said the state government would not ban tricycles, known as Keke, and minibuses from operating in the state.
Mr Ozor disclosed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Enugu.
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According to the commissioner, tricycles and minibuses will now be available to operate on the outskirts of the city.
“We are not phasing out tricycles and minibuses in the state. The city buses will run from terminal to terminal, or what is called the first mile.
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“The second mile will run from the sub-terminal to different hinterland within that axis. This is where you have small or yellow mini-buses operating.
“Then, what tricycles are meant to do is what is called last mile, because when citizens enter tricycle, they board it because it stops them anywhere they like.
“But running tricycle in the middle of the city makes transportation impossible because they don’t obey traffic rules and block the speed of other vehicles,” Mr Ozor said.
Organised transports system
Mr Ozor said the state now operated an organised transportation system similar to that in advanced countries, where tricycles and minibuses were not allowed to operate in the city.
The Commissioner said only Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses and taxis would be allowed to operate in the city as city buses.
He commended Governor Peter Mbah’s investment in critical infrastructure, including a bus terminal, the construction of rural and urban roads, the commencement of Enugu Air, rail, and the resuscitation of the automotive industry.
“This means that transportation in Enugu cannot be the same anymore; it needs to meet world standards.
He said the BRT buses were safe, had reduced prices, and had life-sharing like Uber or Bolt, a sharing model in which three people can request to be in the same vehicle.
“We all have travelled abroad and stayed; why can’t we copy the nice things we see everywhere in the world to our state?
“The bus shelters we are building are the same bus stops you see in London. They have 60-metre lay-bys for safety and efficiency,” Mr Ozor said.
He said cities worldwide used city buses with digital signs, telling passengers the bus would arrive in nine minutes. Others ran at different times and places in the city.
“These technologies are fed into central of our command and control that the President came to inaugurate on 14 January.
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“All these are part of the security architecture of the state, as a lot of kidnappings within the urban area happen with the perpetrators using keke and minibuses.
“Government must take a strategic move to safeguard lives and property and prosper the people,” Mr Ozor said.
He said the state would soon build a vehicle manufacturing plant, adding that taxis, CNG and electric taxis would be produced in Enugu to create jobs.
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