Nigerian Flight Deck Travel and Business Reportage
AFTER inspecting and auditing the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja runway today the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has said that the runway is 99% complete and work would be complete before reopening.
Nigerianflightdeck had erroneously reported that the audit would commence from tomorrow in an earlier news item but the audit was scheduled for today from 10am.
Director-General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman who scored the airport said that the CAA also made some finding which are not safety critical stating that they have been communicated to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to carry out an action plan.
Usman said, “Today, NCAA along with the airport owner Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN conducted an inspection. We were able to see that the job has been done well up to at least 99% completion. We believe the remaining work be completed on or before the official opening date.”
“However, we made some findings as usual with any kind of audit. What we found out were items that are not safety critical. Those items will not stop the opening of this airport, they will not affect safety. The findings have been communicated to the owner of the airport, FAAN. We are expecting a corrective action plan that will come with timelines that will address those issues. But as I mentioned earlier, those items that we found are not safety critical and then cannot affect the opening. The job has been well-done. The technology employed is the latest and we believe Nigerians will be happy.”
The Managing Director to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Engr. Saleh Dunoma while responding to the items found by NCAA stated that they will be corrected after the agreed action plan and timeline with NCAA.
“The inspection has been conducted. Since the beginning of the project, this is the major inspection that was conducted. Although, we have been working in collaboration with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority but of course we have to adhere to procedures and these procedure is that after the completion or near completion of the project, an inspection will be conducted. The inspection will have to be conducted by both our engineers from NCAA, FAAN , the consultant and the contractors. They have made some finding just like the DG as said, they are not safety critical”.
“It is normal after huge project like this, such findings will be there. All we need to do is to adhere to the procedure, which means we have to respond to those findings by writing to the NCAA our action plan and timeline. This will be submitted immediately. We will work together with contractor to make sure that all these findings are corrected within the timelines that we are going to agree with NCAA. And of course, after the final inspection will be conducted then, we believe we will be given a clean bill of health by the NCAA”, said FAAN MD
An official of Julius Berger who was part of the inspection, Dr Lars Richter was happy on how far the project has gone. “We are really proud to be part of this project. It was quite a bit challenging to finish the project within six weeks. At the beginning, everybody in Nigeria was concerned. Not everybody was happy that the airport was closed for six weeks. But we together with FAAN, the contractors have delivered the runway within six weeks and it was a good cooperation because the task was really tight. At the end of this inspection, everybody could see the prove that the runway is finished. The runway is delivered on the highest quality. We can say for the next Ten years, it will remain there of course with good maintenance. We as Julius Berger now have the knowledge of the airport. We are ready also for the second runway or extension of whatsoever here on Abuja airport. I am happy that all the concerns are gone. We can open the runway on-time so that we get back the access back to Nigeria.”
