Enugu Govt begins GIS-Based Road Inventory, mapping

The Enugu State Government says it will soon carry out inventory of over 4000 thousand roads, river crossing as well as bridges across the 17 local government areas of the state, using the geographic information system (GIS).

The coordinator, Enugu State Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) Chinedu Ugwu disclosed this at a stakeholders’ sensitization workshop and training on GIS-based road inventories and mapping for local government supervisors and state directors of works.

Ugwu said the GIS study will provide a holistic idea of the numbers of local, state and federal government roads in the state and their prevent conditions for proper expansion and maintenance.

While urging the participants to take advantage of the training to acquaint themselves with GIS-based inventory procedure,  Ugwu said it will a long way in fast-tracking  rural development.

“The essence of the GIS study is to give us a holistic idea of roads in the state, including, local, state and federal roads. It will give us a database of all existing roads in the state and their conditions. Those that are tarred, the ones not tarred those that need emergency work and those that do not”.

“It will help us in proper development of the different roads in the state”.

“The essence of this particular project is that it is the bedrock of rural development”. It will also help us in prioritising other roads for future development”. He said.

Also speaking, state focal person, World Bank and Development Partner projects in Enugu state, Uche Nnadi stated that the GIS study will help mainstream Enugu state into technology-based instrument for development.

Nnadi said the projects holds immense benefits for all sectors of the economy including; security, agriculture, transportation, commerce among others.

He commended Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for his commitment to rural development which he said is one of the cardinal points of the current administration.

According to him “in this modern world of technology, everything is based on technology; health, security, commerce to leisure and it is very important that Enugu state is not left out of the equation when it comes to world development project.

“The essence of this workshop is to bring Enugu state through the instrumentality of RAMP which is a World Bank project into mainstreaming the state into world stage of technology base instrument for development and leisure”.

“It is possible to have a security control station at the police headquarters to monitor every part of the state, using the GIS, it is an important landmark in the history of the state, and we must be very grateful for his Excellency, the governor of the state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for making today possible in the lives of the people”.

“It is going to affect every sector of this state in terms of commerce, agriculture, security and general leisure, because you can afford to move from one point to the other without having to ask anybody especially with risk of insecurity in the system”.

“It is a very important landmark in the history of this state that the project is taking off”.

“Part of the development agenda of Enugu government is rural development; which is one of the cardinal points of the current administration in the state”.

The Principal Consultant Geo-Solution Providers Ltd, David Ogunsawe, disclosed that the GIS-based road inventory and mapping would help in deployment of infrastructural services, boosts agricultural services, equitable distribution of projects, prevents sharp practices by civil engineers as well as increased Internally Generated revenue of the state.

Ogunsawe said with the amount of investment by the state government in road construction activities; there will be an expected increase in socio-economic activities in the state.

“Apart from minor roads, we are still going to map footpaths in the state”.

“RAMP is about road construction especially in the rural areas, GIS is like a consultancy service within the framework of ramp activities”.

“The information we will give to RAMP can help the state take scientific decisions as regards road construction activities are concern”.

“Apart from taking inventory of the roads, the advantage the programme would afford the state, is that we are going to take inventory of civil engineering condition of these roads including portholes and eroded edges”.

“We will have it in our data base so that our client; RAMP can further use it to implement the project”.
The project billed to commence soon will last for fourteen weeks.