Lagos Govt. to Conduct Aerial Mapping of the State
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Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos State Deputy Governor, fielding questions from journalists at the hangar where the aircraft acquired for the state’s mapping project is parked
The Lagos State Government will soon embark on aerial mapping of its entire land mass, physical structures therein, the littoral areas and ocean shores in the territorial boundaries of the state of aquatic splendor.
A Cessna 406 aircraft acquired by the state government would be deployed for the exercise.
Dr Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, made the disclosure when he made an inspection tour of the aircraft parked at the Dominion Hangar, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
He said when the mapping exercise is completed, it will afford the state government opportunity to adequately plan for numerous infrastructural needs for the continuous improvement of the living standards of Lagosians.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Dr. Hamzat, said the state’s mapping is a major components of the Enterprise, Geographic Information System, EGIS, upgrade, which is aimed at providing updated digital mapping platform/data.
He said the aerial digital mapping would also help in knowing the actual buildings and infrastructure in the state, while also helping to update its database.
He explained that the aircraft will fly over the state’s airspace for about four and half hours daily, subject to the prevailing weather condition, and the duration would last for about six to eight weeks.
Hamzat narrated thus, “we have done it before. Lagos like any other city is dynamic. What we had five years ago is not what you have today. The international standard is to do it every five years so that you can update your database and every other thing”.
The deputy Governor gave a succinct summary of the project thus, “the essence is to know the data of your state and what that does is to enable you to plan. What you cannot really measure, you cannot really manage. So, the essence for us is to be able to measure every inch of Lagos and its size and efficiently manage the resource.”
The aircraft, a Cessna 406 with registration number ZS-SSY from South Africa would be flown by Capt. Tertius Van Wky.
Dr. Olajide Babatunde, Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Enterprise, Geographic Information System (EGIS), said after the successful mapping of the state, the government would also embark on surveying the land.
Capt. Tertius Van Wky who, will man the cockpit of the Cessna 406 aircraft said his crew was at home with the project as similar exercise had been successfully executed in many other African countries such as, Kenya, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Rwanda, among others.
Giving the background to the project, Managing Director of Omni-Blu Aviation Limited, Capt. James Daniel, said preliminary work on the project started in October 2022.
Hence Omni-Blu was able to facilitate the aircraft importation and the firm will monitor the entire operations in Lagos for the duration it will take to satisfactorily complete the mapping the state of aquatic splendor.
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