Ibadan — Oyo State government has embarked on reform of its transportation sector with the commissioning of 55 new Toyota Hiace buses to reduce the hardship faced by commuters in the state.

Governor Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala declared this while performing the commissioning at the premises of the state Trans City Transport Corporation (TCTC) at Eleiyele in Ibadan on Monday adding that it was in fulfillment of his electioneering campaign promises to improve the transportation system in the state drastically for the benefit of the common man.

His words: "Having observed that Oyo State in the past lacked effective public transportation system, traffic regulation and enforcement which had resulted in visible congestion and frustration of commuters, it therefore became imperative for the present administration to embark on the reform of the transportation system as it is done in other civilised countries of the world."

The governor disclosed that plans had reached advanced stage by the administration to establish a transport regulatory body called OYSMATA in Oyo State to ensure sanity on the roads in the face of the congestion being posed on the major roads and junctions by the operators of taxis, mini buses and 'okadas' as well as street traders and others who engage in commercial activities at such places, particularly in Ibadan the state capital.

While expressing the hope that the project would bring sanity into the transportation system in the state, the governor remarked that his administration had engaged in the massive investment of providing good road network in the state in its belief that an efficient transport system is a necessary requirement for commerce and industry and economic growth and development.

"The purchase of these buses is therefore to complement the huge investment in the provision of good road network," he stated just as he disclosed that arrangement had been concluded by the administration for the supply of another set of Mass Transit buses that will arrive the country for intra-city transport system within the next two months.

Governor Alao-Akala explained that the arrangement is similar to what is currently happening in the places like Britain, India, Brazil and even Lagos State in Nigeria.

But he posited that in order to ensure that the transportation system is run efficiently and to avoid the mistakes of past administrations, "the business enterprise will not be run like the civil service." Rather, he said, the government had resolved that the transport company will be a public-private partnership venture while the workers there shall not be civil servants as their condition of services will be different from what is obtained in the civil service, while they can be fired at the shortest notice, if found to be dishonest and/or unproductive.

Earlier in his address on the occasion, the Chairman of Trans City Transport Company, Mr. Adesina Alabi, expressed the hope that by the second quarter of 2009, the company would not only transport commuters across the cities in Oyo State and other states alone but would have been able to sufficiently provide job opportunities for professionals in engineering and motoring strata in Oyo state and Nigeria.