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Nigeria: FG Approves Monorail for Mma
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This Day (Lagos)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Chinedu Eze
Lagos
To beat undue delay occasioned by traffic snarls on the road linking international terminal with the domestic terminal of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, the Federal Government has in principle approved the construction of monorail by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services to enhance passengers' movement.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the company, Alex Van-Elk, who said that the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has given approval for the project, which would be subjected to other approvals like environmental impact assessment and the pathway location before construction.
Bi-Courtney which is managing the new domestic terminal known as MMA2 believes that the monorail will put an end to complaints of passengers who miss their flight while in the traffic jam on the road between the two terminals.
Van-Elk who said that Bi-Courtney was eagerly awaiting the final approval for the construction of the rail projected that it would be completed within the next three years.
"We want to make Murtala Muhammed Airport a major hub; we are already consulting with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the NCAA. They have to give us the go ahead and we will swing into full action".
He said that in less than one year of operation the new terminal has recorded about 1, 140, 000 passenger movement through the terminal and predicted that the figure would be doubled when all the airlines move their domestic operation to the terminal.
In response to the expected growth, Van-Elk said that Bi-Courtney has already started the expansion of the terminal, projecting that about 6 million passengers would be passing through the airport in the next few years.
"I can inform you all that about 90,000 to 95,000 passengers pass through this airport monthly and they have been commending our operations".
He also said that public, private partnership is the key to infrastructural development in airports, noting that government has realized that airport is no more social amenity but business enterprise, which must be invested in and which is also capital intensive that needs the private sector's input to thrive.
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"There are a lot of efforts to put a terminal up to shape. In my opinion, the government can spend the resources on better things.
Talking of Nigeria , housing, education, energy are more pressing issues for government. The other thing is that the company is coming on a commercial basis with a lot of know-how. If you don't know your job, you will never run a profitable place. For airport, a specialist should come in".
On security at MMA2 he said, "The airlines have safe and efficient counters; there is no need to have long queues at the checking areas. There is no need for any x-ray machines for the carry-on luggage because we have four scanners that can do all the work. So, I think we can call this by far, the most passenger friendly than Heathrow Terminal 5 at the moment".
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