The China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), contractor handling the construction of the N712 billion terminal and associated infrastructure at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA), Lagos will take three months before it starts actual construction work in order to relocate the current users of the old terminal to a temporary place.

According to the company, the three months delay will be used to prepare temporary offices for staff and stakeholders, departure hall and airlines offices so that as the project is going on, these businesses will be operating simultaneously.

Findings show that temporary relocation of the current users of the terminal to another place was embedded in the contract; so, it is the responsibility of the construction company to relocate the businesses from the old terminal.

According to sources from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the agency has to obey instructions of the contractor who has taken charge of the construction site, deciding the best way to move the current terminal users to a temporary location to start work in earnest.

The federal government last month announced the total construction and transformation of the old international terminal at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and this would entail the tear down of the old terminal, the linking of the new terminal to the existing one which has taken over most of the activities from the old terminal, and the reconstruction of the facilities like road and other infrastructure for easy movement of passengers and other airport users.

“I want to clarify to you that the job is not being delayed by FAAN. The contractor is working to provide alternative place so that airport users can continue their operations while work is on-going. That is what they are trying to put in place right now. FAAN is not in any way delaying the project or obstructing the project. It is a project that FAAN really wanted and it came up at the right time,” an inside source at FAAN said.

The insider also explained, “There are some facilities they will have to pull down and replicate elsewhere. Fingers (avio bridges) have to be extended. These are capital intensive projects that are imbedded in the contract and people are not looking at that.

“They believe that it is just renovation. This involves bringing down the entire building, changing all the plumbing, all the electrical. Even the building itself, they are rebuilding it to be in tandem with modern airport terminal structures as obtained in other parts of the world. They will come out with the latest outlook. It is not just common renovation as people are just saying.

“They are also correcting the mistakes in the new terminal by constructing a road that will go up to departure level and come down. This is also part of the contract. As it is now, the departing passengers have to go through arrival, before the go through the elevator to departure, which is wrong.

“When the project is completed, the departure will now go on with departure, and arrival passengers will pass through arrival area downstairs without meeting each other. These are the mistakes they are also going to correct.” (BUSINESS DAY)