Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) believes that the completion of Islamabad’s new airport is bound to go beyond the end of 2016 and they are reluctant to give any precise date for inauguration of this top facility of the federal capital.

The new airport will facilitate more than two thousand vehicles for parking with 90 check-in counters, a 15-gate terminal including ten remote gates, maintenance shed, convention centre, 15-passenger boarding bridges, cargo handling facility, CATE-III, 150KMT, 42 immigration counters and covered plaza area for 200 cars.

The work on construction of approach roads and dams to meet water needs of the airport, however, is being carried out at a faster pace under PSDP for financial year 2016-17. The federal government allocated a sum of Rs 6.2 billion for the same projects and Rs 900.8 million were set aside for the construction of two rainwater harvesting dams – Rama and Kasana dams.

“The site of the new airport near Fateh Jang is almost infertile, with no availability of underground water,” the official said.

“Central Development Working Party (CDWP) approved the Rama and Kasana dams on March 31 2016 and in first phase, work on the construction of Rama dam at a cost of Rs1.6 billion has been taken up,” he said, adding that nearly 10 per cent work on the dam had so far been completed.

Rama dam is the most feasible of the proposed reservoir and the site meets the requirement for supply needed at the airport.

When contacted, CAA spokesperson Amir Mehboob said the authority cannot provide an exact date by when the mega project will be completed.

A sum of Rs 3 billion was marked for the construction of road network, including the main link, the Thalian link and periphery road, and Rs 2.3 billion for the construction of approach road networks, including acquisition of land and shifting of utilities from the area.

“We have huge hopes attached to the New Airport as we are promised that with the inception new opportunities will be provided to us. But the undue delay in the construction of New Islamabad Airport is causing much apprehension in our minds”, said Amin Ullah, a local resident when contacted.

“Funds have recently been released by the government to the National Highway Authority (NHA), which has started work on building approach roads,” said the official.

“We are waiting for the opening of new airport in federal capital because a huge number of people had been invested in land purchasing to build houses. As the government had decided to construct new air port; the prices of adjacent lands were skyrocketed,” Ahmed Mohal, a local resident said.

A senior CAA official told Daily Times that there was no chance of the project being completed on time. “We have to wait till next year or even beyond that for the project to become operational,” PAC was being told by Civil Aviation Authority that the work on the project go beyond the December 2016 deadline.

“Work on water reservoirs and approach roads will be completed till June 2017,” the official said.

Talking about technical and design flaws in airport runways, the official said, the CAA had decided not to revise the design. “One runway will be enough to gratify to the needs,” he said.

Another official of the authority claimed that if the change of design has done at this stage then it would have huge financial backlash and also would be the reason in delaying the project.