Lagos residents will
soon be enjoying the benefits of the N3bn mapping and enterprise
Geographic Information Service project initiated by the state
government, as the grey areas are currently being worked on to ensure
smooth operations.
The project was
conceived to produce a digital database for implementing developmental
programmes and orderly development of the state; come up with a
navigator system that will provide route maps in electronic format to
guide motorists, while the active Global Positioning System reference
station will allow for monitoring of transportation and security
systems.
The project’s components
include geodetic control and digital aerial photo acquisition;
determination of geoid model and establishment of continuous operating
reference station and orthophoto;and contour lines and digital (vector)
mapping.
Others are GIS database
and enterprise GIS; bathymetry survey of Lagos lagoons and creeks; as
well as supply of equipment, training and public
enlightenment/education.
At the inauguration of
the project in July 2008, Governor Babatunde Fashola had said that in
addition to the traditional use of mapping products, it could be used
for environmental monitoring, engineering and construction, real estate,
flood plain mapping, telecommunications planning and transport
planning.
Four years after it was
inaugurated, the project has yet to record much impact, as the promise
to residents that they can in the comfort of their homes and offices get
vital information at the click of a button on their computers.
However, the
Surveyor-General of Lagos State, Mr. Joseph Agbenla, said the mapping
and enterprise GIS project would soon come on stream, explaining that
existing pieces of information were being uploaded onto the system.
Agbenla said, “Very
soon, the GIS and enterprise mapping project will be in the air. The
delay was due to some logistic reasons beyond anybody’s control. The
project has been completed and the necessary data had been uploaded; we
are currently addressing the grey areas. Within a limited number of
months, we will be in the air and people will have access to it from
anywhere in the world.
“We have the control
room at the Abacus Centre, which is the computer system centre for the
Lagos State Government. The website is already completed and we have the
officers on ground to administer and manage it. Once the citizens pay,
they will be given cards from Interswitch to access the system.”
He explained that his
office had its own land information system could be integrated with the
Electronic Data Management System and the GIS in order to have a robust
land registry that would provide information to the government and
citizens at the click of a button.
The surveyor-general
explained that his office had modernised its operations ensuring the
storage of all existing survey plans in an electronic format and
attending to all requests promptly through its nine zonal offices, with
plans in advance stages to open two new offices in Ojo and Badagry.
Agbenla urged surveyors
in private practice to conduct themselves ethically by submitting the
Red copies of survey plans to his office 40 days after surveys were done
in accordance with the provision of the law.
“We have over 5,000
applicants whose Red copies are not here because private surveyors who
did the surveys did not do the right thing by submitting the surveys
within the stipulated 40 days, yet members of the public will blame us
for delaying their jobs. Surveyors have to practice ethically,” he said.
Agbenla also revealed
plans to introduce electronic signature of survey plans as part of
measures for the introduction of electronic Certificate of Occupancy in
the state.
On the problem of
disturbances by original land owners, Agbenla said, “We have a system by
which we have been dealing with the omo oniles; they have been applying
for excision and the government has been so benevolent to grant excise
portions of their land to them, but we don’t allow them to do the
planning, we do it in order to align with our own plans.”
He explained that the
government usually acquired land from the original owners to execute its
programmes and projects and that on no account must members of the
public purchase land under committed acquisition, but should first find
out the status of any land within the state that they were interested in
buying.
For global acquisition,
the surveyor-general said buyers could regularise their ownership by
obtaining the land information certificate and obtaining the private
Certificate of Occupancy, which would give them title to the land.
Agbenla, who recently assumed office,
said his office was bringing surveyors to embrace new technologies that
would enhance their jobs and had trained its officers at home and abroad
on new methodologies and technologies.
Punch
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