FATEH JANG
The New Islamabad International Airport is going to be completed by July this year with revised estimated cost of Rs82 billion and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will inaugurate this state of the art facility on August 14.
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will inaugurate this gift for the nation on 70th Independence Day by inaugurating the New Islamabad International Airport.
The work on this airport will be completed by end July and the premier has decided to inaugurate it on August 14, 2017,” Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal told reporters during his visit to the site for reviewing progress.
Defending the cost escalation from Rs32 billion to Rs82 billion, the minister said Musharraf regime had reduced the number of bridges for the new airport from 15 to 9 but the PML-N government decided to keep the same old number in order to make this airport in line with best international standards.
“All international standards facilities including air controlling tower and mechanism for landing in case of severe fog have been placed into this airport. The runway and other facilities are up to required international standards,” he added.
The Ministry of Planning had arranged visit of media persons for showing them physical progress on construction of this new airport. The physical work is almost completed but its renovation is still underway for making this airport operational.
The minister said that two links road one from Motorway and another were under construction and would be completed in next few months. “The PM has directed the authorities concerned to establish linkages of Metro Bus with the new airport so that common people could commute without any difficulty,” he added.
He said that two dams were under construction which would be filled with monsoon rainfalls while Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also conducted 11 bores to dig out water for meeting requirements of the airport. He said that the requirements of electricity and gas would also be fulfilled for the upcoming airport.
The minister reminded that the work on this airport was kick-started in 2006 but when they took over the power in 2013 there was only 45 percent physical work completed on this airport. Then the government brought changes in scope work and modified its master plan that expanded the work manifold and the cost was also escalated.
“Like many other projects, our government had inherited this project which was considered while elephant at that time like Kacchi canals and others but now the new airport was nearing to completion and the PM will inaugurate it on coming August 14, 2017,” he added. He said that the government released over Rs20 billion to complete this project well on envisaged deadline.
The New Islamabad International Airport (NIIA) will have landing and parking of A 380 the biggest passenger aircraft of the world.
The beautifully structured New Islamabad International Airport possessed three storey buildings and it looked like airport of any international city. Although, lift system was not fully operational but its building structure and runway was almost completed. Now the work on allied facilities will be undertaken in months ahead and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) high-ups seemed confident that this airport would be completed this time as they were not intended to embarrass the ruling elites for missing another deadline.