To and fro Iperu, Ogun by air: How Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan, others will reap benefits

By Funmi Branco

In Iperu-Remo, Ikenne Local Government Area of Ogun State, the distant sounds of automobiles connected winding bush roads person been replaced by the roar of pitchy engines. What was erstwhile fields, reddish earth, and farmlands is present location to the Gateway International Airport and its companion aerotropolis — a bold experimentation successful cross-pollinating infrastructure with agriculture, residential living, and planetary trade. Under the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration, the task agelong dreamed of, begun, and got completed.

Generally described arsenic unprecedented transportation by a governor, is what galore anticipation volition beryllium an avenue for maturation of the South-West, peculiarly for Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta and the surrounding communities.

Proximity and strategical positioning

Ogun’s caller airdrome is not located randomly. It is strategically placed adjacent the Ilishan/Iperu-Ilisan Road, giving it unbridled entree to the Southwest’s political, economic, spiritual and humanities centres — Lagos, Ibadan and Abeokuta. The proximity means shorter haul times for cargo, little transit cost, and faster turnaround for perishable cultivation produce.

Linking large roads, particularly the Lagos-Ibadan and Abeokuta-Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Benin expressways, means that goods arriving from remoter parts of Ogun oregon neighbouring states similar Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo, volition heighten commercialized and business, and astir importantly, boost nutrient security, with farmers, manufacturers, and aerial commuters not having to endure atrocious roads and postulation jams en way to an airport. They volition besides find a quieter, faster alternate to Lagos’ aerial traffic.

This airport, upon afloat cognition with caller airlines joining Value Jet, volition chopped hours disconnected their journey, arsenic travelling from Iperu takes little than an hr to scope Lagos, forty-five minutes to Ibadan, and hardly 30 minutes to Abeokuta.

The centrality gives Ogun an unprecedented borderline successful logistics and concern attraction. This volition supply exporters with the accidental to nonstop nutrient straight from Iperu, thereby relieving Lagos’ congested cargo terminals.

For Governor Abiodun, the tract is “a astute determination to spot Ogun astatine the bosom of Nigeria’s logistics revolution.”

“It is nary mishap that this airdrome sits wherever it does.

“From here, goods, people, and opportunities tin travel freely to the remainder of the state and beyond,” helium said during commissioning.

The country for cargo facilities and technology

According to authorities authorities releases, the runway is astir 4 kilometres long, making it 1 of the longest successful the country. It is built to accommodate ample aircraft, which is important for cargo capableness and planetary connections.

The airdrome is being fitted with cutting-edge navigational aids, ramp lighting, a 2-megawatt state powerfulness plant, a modern power tower, arsenic good arsenic precocious electronics for aerial postulation power and safety. These are not specified embellishments; they service to guarantee that operations tin beryllium reliable adjacent nether divers upwind conditions and trim operating costs and delays.

To safeguard planetary standards, the airdrome is to beryllium manned by respective national agencies: Nigerian Customs, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Police, and different regulatory bodies. This ensures that some import/export requirements and information oversight are built successful from the start.

Business attraction and aerotropolis

What is peculiarly striking astir the Gateway task is that it has not been built arsenic an isolated airport, but arsenic the centrepiece of an aerotropolis. The thought is that astir the airport, you volition person lodging estates, commercialized offices, logistics firms, agro-processing, existent estate, and different businesses clustering to instrumentality vantage of proximity.

Some of the circumstantial businesses, estates, and organizations already attracted oregon planned are:

The Gateway Aviation Village — a residential property (Phase One of 100 units, afloat sold; Phase Two of 200 units successful progress), built to enactment those who volition live, work, oregon bash concern astir the aerotropolis. It comes w...