Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
MANAGING Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu has told the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation that the Chinese EXIM Bank funded Murtala Muhammed International Airport Terminal come on stream by the first quarter of next year, 2021.
He made this known while taking the House of Representatives aviation committee members on an oversight visit to the airport project to check on its progress.
The new terminal is one of five currently being built by the Chinese with a $500million loan from the Chinese and a $100million counterpart funding by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Chairman, House of Rep Committee on aviation, Honourable Nnolim Nnaji, who was on ground for the airport inspection expressed satisfaction with the job on ground and commended the management of FAAN for making great strides in the pace of the project.
Speaking at the construction site, Nnaji said his committee members were not armchair legislators and decided to visit project sites and do some mental correlation on the projects and budget approved with the quality and volume of work being done with the taxpayers’ money.
Nnaji reminded FAAN management of that critical infrastructure that impact safety such as, the runway lightings among others, should be given more than the usual attention.
He further commended the management of FAAN for the provision of apron linking the new terminal with the old terminal buildings.
Nnaji said that the industry was only just recovering from the Corona Virus pandemic stating that contractors were returning to abandoned projects and works are resuming.
“The worst hit of this corona virus is aviation and tourism and we are happy the industry is coming back, as you can see a lot of things were abandoned because of this crisis but now contractors are coming back to site, works are resuming and things are taking shape.
“Last year we were here for oversight because usually when we receive the budget we either invite for budget defense and after the defense we visit for oversight to see what they have done with the previous budget and what they will do with the current budget.
“Last time, we noticed there was no connection between the old international and new but as you can see today there is a connection and from what the MD said by February they’d open up the corridor for passengers to use. So we are impressed because we are now on the apron, last year there was no apron, but today there is an apron. A lot of improvement and we are happy to support to move the industry forward,’ he said.
