Clara Makho
Federal Government on Wednesday approved the procurement and installation of Instrument Landing Systems for Abuja, Kaduna, Benin, Ibadan and Enugu airports.
According to the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the landing systems are expected to guide pilots and planes to the central line of the runway and to the threshold.
This contract which was initially awarded at a cost of N1,590,361,027.20 was revalued to N3,149,740,995.42 by the Federal Executive Council.
He said, “the contract was awarded in 2011 but due to the exchange rate, we had to bring it back to Council, it suffered a lack of budgetary allocations. So we came back to Council to have it re-denominated.
“It was awarded at a time the Naira was N154 to a dollar but now is N305. So Council has approved and the user department is Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA). This is a very important instrument for us, to be able to operate in poor weather conditions and to be able to take the planes down to the central lines of the runway for safe pilotage. So this is a safety concern and gladly it has been approved”
Meanwhile, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola said FEC approved revaluation of contract sums for Ilorin-Omuaran-Kabba road, linking Kwara and Kogi States.
He explained that the projects were previously awarded at a cost of N13.541 billion in 2013 but due to exchange rate and price fluctuations, it has been reviewed from N29.951 billion to N43.492 billion, representing a variation of N13.541 billion.
Also approved for construction was the Odukpani junction to Akpet Central in Cross River State, covering 73 kilometers at the cost of N14.014 billion.
Fashola explained that the failed section up for construction would complete the link from Calabar-Itu all the way to Ogoja-Gakem.
“If you have followed the development, we have Julius Berger on the Calabar-Itu section and Sematec on the Ugep-Alese section and PW on the Ikom-Mbok section and Wellstone on the Ogoja-Gakem section.
“So it was Odukpani to Akpet that had no contract. That is where you would have reported in the past that some patrol tanker trucks and stuff have been stuck. So that contract has been awarded and hopefully as we head into the dry season, reconstruction work will start there and continue along the entire leg,” he stated.
