Decongestion: FG moves to sign rail contract for Lagos airport

The federal government has announced plan to sign the contract for the construction of a rail line to connect the domestic and the international wings of the Murtala Muhammad Airport Ikeja, Lagos....CONTINUE READING

This, it said, is part of the plans to decongest gridlock in and out of the country’s premier airport and make it more secure, efficient and profitable…..CONTINUE READING

Part of the grand plan to improve the Lagos airport, the government said, would also see the demolition of two prominent aircraft hangars adjacent the former headquarter office of the erstwhile Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), Dominion hangar owned by the fiery cleric and founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide AKA, Winners Chapel and the Evergreen Apple owned by a former Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren.

Minister of Aviation Senator Hadi Sirika, who said this weekend in Lagos, also affirmed that the Lagos airport cannot continue to operate the old way.

He said it’s high time necessary rehabilitation works and reconstructions were carried out to improve infrastructure at the MMA, noting that the demolition of the hangars would happen within the next two weeks.

The minister spoke at the commissioning of 10 brand new Lion Volkan 6×6 Brand, Major Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Vehicles (MFFV) valued at over N12 billion, which he said formed part of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s ambitious plans to revamp the country’s airports facilities.

Speaking of the administration’s policy, Sirika said: “President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC government are working. In his wisdom, he appointed us to head the civil aviation since 2015 and when we took over we had our priorities, and our priorities were as built into a single statement, to keep it simple, so we were concerned about how safe, secured for us to depart from point A and lands at point B and everything in-between must be done in the most efficient manners.

“We are not operating the Lagos airport at full capacity, it is household knowledge now that we have some obstructions that will be removed very soon within one or two weeks to enable us expand the apron so that Lagos can have that full airport in full use 100 percent because of its premier nature and importance of Lagos to the economy of Nigeria and civil aviation.

“The Dominion and Evergreen hangars will have to give way for our airport to be more efficient. It is over 300 million dollar investments that are there and they can’t continue to sit there because there is an overriding public interest. When we are trying to carry out transformation, some people politicise it or they decide to use it for mischievous reasons. We will surely shift them somewhere.

“They have to go; we cannot deny the city of Lagos and the country needed development from the use of the airport. When we demolished AIB buildings that belong to us, people were complaining. If the entire country can move to Abuja, what is a small AIB of 200 people? I don’t need to demolish their building, if I say to the Commissioner go and he doesn’t go I fire him, I appointed him, no big deal,” the minister said.

Irked by condemnations that trailed the planned demolition of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) offices in Lagos for what he called an aerotropolis project, Sirika said “some people try to politicise all these things. When we say we are going to remove FAAN headquarters completely, bring it down and build shopping malls, hotels, and make it more useful for the over 20 million people of Lagos and the economy of Nigeria, somebody is talking rubbish, the government will do it.”

He said: “We cannot continue to be the way we are and then you open your mouth and complain that look at this airport, it is too chaotic, there is too much go slow, too much hold ups and traffics into the airport, why there won’t be traffic when we don’t build infrastructure that will remove the traffic. We are signing a contract by next week to build the rail from the domestic to the international wing of the airport.”

He said the agencies’ heads had been directed “to put together and document all the safety, security, critical items that will make the industry more efficient, more profitable, document them for posterity saying that will form part of his handover note.”

He commended the FAAN firemen for the critical role they played in the safety of the sector and urged them to make judicious use of the new fire tenders.

The aviation minister disclosed that the Buhari administration was establishing a fire truck rehabilitation, overhaul and maintenance centre and that it will also begin to assemble those fire trucks for “our own use and the market of west and central Africa.

“The contract has been awarded and it is ongoing. Very soon, perhaps within six months we will become operational.

“In terminal building, we have done what no government in Nigeria has done since the amalgamation of the country since 1914…..CONTINUE READING