Ogun State government has unveiled a regeneration programme aimed at transformation of some dilapidated structures within the state’s Government Reservation Areas (GRAs).

Tagged “Ogun State GRA Regeneration Programme,” the project is meant to create “smart cities” with the construction of modern housing units on over 100 hectares of land, valued at billions of naira in Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode, Ota, among other areas.

The regeneration programme, according to the Commissioner for Housing, Jamiu Omoniyi, was the idea of the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun to rebuild the GRAs, starting with Ibara.

Omoniyi, who spoke with reporters after an inspection tour of the Ibara housing project, said the main objective of the regeneration plan was to restructure the concerned areas to make them environmentally friendly through the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) scheme.

He noted that the scheme is part of the current administration’s efforts to alter the rapidly degenerating environment by a deliberate adjustment of the existing city areas to meet the current and future needs of urban life.

It is also intended, according to him, to replace the obsolete and dilapidated buildings that share the characteristics of slum areas with the general framework of an overall plan for modern city development.

According to the commissioner, the urban regeneration scheme is expected to have between four and five bedrooms of different sizes which are to be complemented with world-class infrastructural facilities.

The Ibara scheme, he said, would be redeveloped into 500 housing units, while Idi-Aba is to have 100 units.

Omoniyi, accompanied on the visit by the Head of Service (HoS), Peter Kolawole Fagbohun and General Manager, Ogun State Housing Corporation, Wale Ojo, noted that on the directive of the governor, civil servants at different income levels would be considered in the new scheme.

He said that a wide range of opportunities, such as rent-to-own, outright purchase, and mortgage, had been put in place to make public servants benefit from the new scheme.

Similarly, the state government said it had put in place a holistic transportation system that would help to address the problem of rural-urban migration, among other issues.

The state’s Commissioner for Transport, Gbenga Dairo, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the newly-introduced Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) bus scheme, said that the transportation plan, which was developed in collaboration with the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (UKFCDO) and eggheads at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, had been adopted by the state and is already being implemented in stages.

Dairo said the target of the ministry was to deliver affordable, safe, accessible and a sustainable transportation system that would take care of all parts of the state, be rural or urban.

He also explained that the pilot scheme was among other objectives designed to test the cohabitation of formal and informal transportation system in the state, starting with Abeokuta, the state capital, as a case study.

Dairo also spoke on government’s plan for other forms of transportation in the state.