NAMA’s Progress On Air Safety Projects
The Acting Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Mr. Matthew Pwajok has highlighted the progress that the agency has made in implementation of air safety measures and installation of equipment across the country.
Speaking during an interactive session with aviation journalists, Pwajok said The Extended Range Voice Communication project has been completed. “There were eight satellite stations in eight locations. We have expanded them to 14, including Kaduna, Jos, Benin, Calabar, Illorin, Sokoto, Maiduguri and Port Harcourt”. This implies implementation of pilot-controller voice communication in 14 locations.
“We have improved communication in 12 control towers,” he said.
On air navigation, he said NAMA has done CAT 1 landing system in 12 airports. ILS CAT 11 has been installed in Sokoto while CAT 111 was done in Runway 11 in Abuja. ILS CAT 111 is also being installed in Port Harcourt.
Doubler VOR has been done in over 10 airports including Maiduguri, Kano, Jos, Yola, Minna, Lagos, Benin, Akure, Illorin and Lagos
The Safe Tower project is an on-going project of over N13 billion. It includes communication systems, aero navigation systems and provides aerodrome and ground control for the four international airports.
The Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project is worth over N23 billion and the on-going upgrade involves provision of N17 billion for systems upgrade to a top sky radar system like the types used in Europe and other parts of the world. This is out of the N23 billion. N5 billion is for VSAT.
“We have radars in nine locations each connected to VSAT. The VSATs are to be upgraded for locations like Mafarawa, Kano, Maiduguri, Abuja and Damaturu.
The Multilateration project is worth US$12.9 million and will help to capture low level flying helicopters, with the Low Level Helicopters Surveillance Systems. The project has reached over 80% implementation. The system will be centralized in Port Harcourt to cover the entire Niger Delta Area. It will also take care of the Gulf of Guinea and other areas.
The TRACON project commissioned over 20 years ago has since expired and NAMA Engineers have been managing the systems independent of Thales personnel contrary to perceptions that NAMA Engineers might not have capacity to manage the facilities.
“What we need to do is upgrade of the hardware and software,” he said, adding that training of the Engineers was already built into the project.
“We are upgrading the TRACON system so that it has the capacity to use electronic radar systems. It will reduce the workload for pilots,” he said. Pwajok further stated that the TRACON hardware and software when upgraded, would improve the airspace management systems.
“We are also planning to implement the airspace based automatic dependence system,” he said.
