The Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of nigeria (FAAN), Mr Saleh Dunoma, has disclosed that the contract for the proposed second runway for Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja has not been awarded.
Dunoma, in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that the project was still at designing stage.
He explained that the initial design that was awarded before it was called off for technical reasons, had to be reviewed and redesigned to correct all the mistakes.
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“We have gone far now; we have started the second process again after discarding that one but we make sure that we correct all the mistakes that were made at the initial stage.
“Government suggested that we should go and come up with common design, common contract document and bill of engineering measurement and the contractors will now quote on the same document so it will be easy to compare.
“This is the process we are following now. We are in the process of engaging consultants for the project.
“As soon as government approves these consultants, they would finalise the design and come up with contract documents which we will now issue to contractors.
“And then we will be getting to where government wanted us to be but we have to follow this process in order to make it transparent, in order to make it competitive because that is what the procurement act encourages and we are just trying to do that.’’
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Dunoma said that in spite of the budgetary allocations for the runway project in 2017 and 2018 budgets, the authority had not started accessing the money since the contract had not been awarded.
He explained that the next stage was the appointment of consultants who would supervise the project, adding that only then the funds would be released.
“We have not started assessing the money because we are yet to finalise the appointment of the consultants and as soon as the consultants are appointed we will start paying them and then they will swing into action.”
The Federal Government in January 2010 awarded the contract for the second runway to Julius Berger at the cost of N64 billion but was later cancelled same year.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, had in 2016 assured N8gerians of the government’s readiness to deliver a second runway for Abuja airport.
In 2017 budget, N10 billion was appropriated for the project, in 2018, N8.3 billion was appropriated while the 2019 budget has N13 billion for the project.
