menatti
4th Aug 2009, 13:40
Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) on Monday said the multi-billion naira Total Radar Project (TRANCON) of the Federal Government in Lagos has become operational.
The new radar now handles the area and approach air traffic services to airlines flying the country’s airspace, while the old Alenia radar is rested for now, though to later serve as backup.
It took top management staff, Engineers and Air Traffic Controllers of NAMA more than 13 hours last weekend to perfect the deployment of personnel and equipment from the old radar room to the new site at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The radar equipment had in April this year, passed calibration test as both the primary and secondary surveillance radar gave accurate signals. Reports from the new location confirmed that the secondary radar had a range of 26 nautical miles, tracking aircraft up to Bida in Niger State from Lagos while the Primary radar maintains 65 nautical miles for approach air traffic services.
Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, who was in Lagos over the weekend described the development as a landmark achievement for the Federal Government under the leadership of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Also elated by the full scale operation of the new radar, the Managing Director of NAMA, Alhaji Ibrahim Auyo, lauded the efforts of the engineers and the controllers and assured that all necessary support would be given to the operations staff to motivate them for high quality services.
A technical representative of Thales ATM of France, the contractor handling the TRACON project, Patrice Quinty, who was at the site on Monday declared: “The system is working properly and you could see the controllers are happy too. I believe what we need now is maintenance of the equipment. The contract paper is ready now and once it is signed, we don’t have problem as the equipment can work for 15 years.”
Meanwhile, the Abuja new radar which was completed in April had equally passed the calibration test with both the primary and secondary radar facilities operating according to technical specification and already deployed for service.
This was in todays Sun. Is Bida only 65 nautical miles from Lagos? And they said national but that range doesnt seem like it covers up to half of Nigeria.
The new radar now handles the area and approach air traffic services to airlines flying the country’s airspace, while the old Alenia radar is rested for now, though to later serve as backup.
It took top management staff, Engineers and Air Traffic Controllers of NAMA more than 13 hours last weekend to perfect the deployment of personnel and equipment from the old radar room to the new site at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The radar equipment had in April this year, passed calibration test as both the primary and secondary surveillance radar gave accurate signals. Reports from the new location confirmed that the secondary radar had a range of 26 nautical miles, tracking aircraft up to Bida in Niger State from Lagos while the Primary radar maintains 65 nautical miles for approach air traffic services.
Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, who was in Lagos over the weekend described the development as a landmark achievement for the Federal Government under the leadership of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Also elated by the full scale operation of the new radar, the Managing Director of NAMA, Alhaji Ibrahim Auyo, lauded the efforts of the engineers and the controllers and assured that all necessary support would be given to the operations staff to motivate them for high quality services.
A technical representative of Thales ATM of France, the contractor handling the TRACON project, Patrice Quinty, who was at the site on Monday declared: “The system is working properly and you could see the controllers are happy too. I believe what we need now is maintenance of the equipment. The contract paper is ready now and once it is signed, we don’t have problem as the equipment can work for 15 years.”
Meanwhile, the Abuja new radar which was completed in April had equally passed the calibration test with both the primary and secondary radar facilities operating according to technical specification and already deployed for service.
This was in todays Sun. Is Bida only 65 nautical miles from Lagos? And they said national but that range doesnt seem like it covers up to half of Nigeria.