‘4.2km Abuja airport second runway will be longest in W’Africa’

• We’ll deliver project before leaving office -Minister

The planned second runway for the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja stretching 4.2km, will be the longest runway in West Africa, Chairman House Committee on Aviation, Nnolim Nnaji, has said.

Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has the second Abuja International Airport Runway would be completed before the exit of the current regime.

Nnaji spoke on the sidelines of the oversight visit of the National Assembly Committee on Aviation to the airport on Thursday, adding that the project would gulp N92bn.

He said the cost would cover lighting, infrastructure, buildings and the construction of the runway.

He commended Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, for the project.

Nnaji said, “We have been expecting this construction to take off because we are aware that we have been funding budget to accommodate the second runway which is very important to this country. Abuja being the capital of Nigeria with an aggressive infrastructural development and economic activities, we feel that it is important to have another runway. This runway when completed will be the longest runway in West Africa, 4.2 kilometres against the existing runway which is about 3.7 kilometres.

“This one is coming with control tower, taxi way and other facilities. At the second phase of this project, we also expect that we will have a terminal building around this place.”

The Minister, who conducted members of the committees of the two chambers of the National Assembly round the ongoing projects at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, disclosed that the contractor for the second runway, Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company, had been fully mobilised.

CCECC project manager, Yang Yantao, while responding to Nnaji’s demand for assurance that the runway would be on schedule, stressed that with proper funding, the CCECC would deliver the runway and all the components in six months.