The Federal Executive Council chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has approved the sum of N33.8bn for the installation of baggage handling systems, Disabled Aircraft Recovery System and total radar coverage modernisation for the Lagos, Abuja Airports and the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, respectively.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who spoke with State House Correspondents at the close of the FEC meeting, said the Ministry of Aviation had submitted three memos to the Council which were approved.
He said, “Today, the Council received three memoranda for civil aviation and they were all approved. Memo number one is for approval of a contract for the supply and installation of baggage handling system at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos and the total contract sum is N3,615,265,710.69, inclusive of the 7.5 per cent VAT, with the completion period of 12 months.
“The contractor is Messrs Gulf of Africa International Limited, who are exclusive representatives of the original equipment manufacturer. The OEM is Messrs UVS Systems Company, a company that is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The funding was found and appropriated and Council consequently approved.
“The second memo from us in Aviation is approval for the award of contract for the manufacture, supply, installation and operating training of Disabled Aircraft Recovery System at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.”
According to Sirika, the DARS is to be applied in the event that there is an aircraft “occupying the runway or any other area of operations, so the special equipment will be used to remove that aircraft from that place and free it for our own operations.”
“A contract was also awarded for direct procurement, installation and commissioning of the total radar coverage modernisation for the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency and this contract is in two parts and the total is €14,428,218.17, which is equivalent to N28,039,080,799.40.
“The contractors are Messrs. Talas, who had been on the project and supported by Intelligent Transportation Systems Limited and Messrs. Softnet Systems Nigeria Limited. The OEMs are Messrs Talas Systems of France and Messrs. HM Global of Germany,” the minister said.
