Study Shows New Airport Terminals Lack Facilities, Require $500m for Upgrade
Chinedu Eze
The new terminals at the Nigeria’s major airports slated to come on stream before the end of this year may not be ready for use as planned because the facilities lack basic infrastructure for passenger facilitation.
Studies conducted by the federal government and carried out by Arcaid, Architects and Environmental Consultants have revealed that the new airport terminals built at the cost of $600 million (N2.16 billion) are inadequate for targeted passenger traffic and lack essential facilities.
The report of the studies made available to THISDAY yesterday, disclosed that to provide the infrastructures that are lacking in the terminals, government has to deploy additional $500 million.
The terminals located at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, and the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, are being built by a consortium of Chinese companies led by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
The project was funded by the Chinese government at the cost of $500 million with counterpart fund of $100 million paid by the federal government.
The money which was obtained in 2012 from the Chinese Import-Exim Bank in 2012 led to the construction of the terminals in 2013 with targeted date of completion in 2015, but work is yet to be completed in the terminals in 2018; although almost all of the terminals are at advanced stage of completion.
Details of the report disclosed that adequate feasibility study was not carried out before locating the terminals at the area of the Abuja and Lagos airports where it obstructed the fire service and the control tower respectively.
The studies also revealed that essential facilities that were absent in the new terminals include landside link, which ought to link the new terminal to the old, drop off canopy, access roads, apron and taxiway, water treatment upgrade and power improvement equipment,
The company that carried out the studies recommended to the federal government the urgent construction of the new fire station, power upgrade and sewage upgrade and the link between the new and the old terminals must be completed before the new terminals would be cleared to become operational.
THISDAY also learnt that after the presentation of the study of each of the terminals, the federal government put a cost to the additional facilities required and it came to about $500 million, which the federal government has included in the 2018 budget after it was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The report also disclosed that the construction of the terminal was hurriedly done without proper study on the location of the facility and that explained why the one located at the Lagos airport was built at the area it blocked the control and on top of electricity cables, which gave rise to constant power outage at the airport.