FG launches N1.7bn mobile control towers

The federal government has commissioned two mobile control towers worth N1.7 billion to boost flight safety.

Minister of Aviation Senator Hadi Sirika, speaking at the commissioning in Lagos, said the towers procured by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) could be deployed for emergency services.

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“The amount of N1.7bn has been spent in procuring these mobile towers. We will use them in Lagos and Abuja and if need be we take them to locations that do not have conventional control towers. They are so equipped, so modernised, so efficient and so very alive. They have everything a control tower should have.

“We have real-time weather, we have all of the approach and departure procedures and over-flight to ensure smooth flight operations and air traffic management.”

The Managing Director of NAMA, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, said the mobile towers would be useful during emergency operations.

Director of Operations, NAMA, Mr Mathew Pwajok, said there are already two others; one in Abuja providing ground control services because the presidential tower is obscured by the new international terminal building, and one in Maiduguri, Borno State.

“We have approval by the federal government to do an upgrade of the existing control towers, at Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano. We call them the safe tower project and upgrading them will take a hardware and software upgrade. While doing that, we will not be able to use the facilities, so this is why this is strategic for contingency,” Pwajok said.