By Williams Anuku
 |
| President Mohammadu Buhari |
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 exchange rate, we had to bring it back to Council, it suffered 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 was 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 dry season, reconstruction work will start there and
continue along the entire leg,” he stated.
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