Is it possible for the air-conditioner in your home to sense when people are getting cold and switch itself off or when they are getting warm and come alive without somebody having to do so? Futhermore,is it possible for the telephone, fire alarm and access control in a building to be interconnected to enable them work harmoniously?

Against the backdrop of the devastating impacts of lightning discharges on human beings, a new technology in lightning protection systems has been introduced into Nigerian market.

The Federal Government has approved the use of water to mix bitumen for construction companies in the country instead of the usual practice of using kerosene to mix bitumen for surface dressing of roads. The use of kerosine to mix bitumen has been fingered as one of the major causes kerosene scarcity in the country.

Lagos State Government has blamed utility providers such as Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and Telecommunications companies for causing flooding in Victoria Island and Apapa areas of Lagos metropolis through indiscriminate laying of cables in drainage channels.

Mr. Francisco Abosede, a Town planner, is the immediate past Commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos. In this interview with DOTUN IBIWOYE, he spoke on a number of issues affecting the construction industry. Excerpts

In the next two years, Lagos is expected to witness series of housing estates that would boost the housing needs of the state both in the metropolis and the suburb.

Government officials and stakeholders in the financial services industry said that Nigeria’s economic growth rate, in spite of its huge infrastructure deficit, at a time of slow growth across developing economies, as well as the economic transformative agenda of the present government, especially its commitment to infrastructure development, makes are some of the reason why the country is the first choice for investment in Africa.

The Lagos State Government has tasked community development associations CDAs and members of the informal sector to cooperate with the government to make Lagos metropolis a clean environment for human habitation.

Last Thursday, one of the few Nigerian Institutions still alive to its corporate responsibility, called a Press Conference in Abuja. The focus of the Conference was not to idolize the Chief Executive of the Agency or to massage the ego of the Supervising Minister. The focus was to alert Nigerians to very salient and vital warnings that could determine life and death.

Determined to stem the rising occurrence of collapse buildings in the country and at the same time rid the built environment of quack engineers, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, has began the collation of data of all registered engineers and the building projects they supervise at any point in time.