CAA plans to construct car parking at Peshawar airport

PESHAWAR: A senior Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) official said on Monday that a plan had been chalked out to relocate the camp of the Airport Security Force (ASF) and construct a multi-storey parking lot on the land to solve the long-awaited parking issue at the Bacha Khan International Airport in the city.

“We have prepared a plan to shift the ASF camp in the second phase of expansion of the airport and construct a multi-storey parking plaza on the vacated land,” said Director, Planning and Development, CAA, Nadir Shafi Dar while talking to The News.

He said the present car parking at the airport was spread over 1.7 acres of land and was insufficient for vehicles using the lot. “Up to 350 vehicles can be parked at the present facility. It isn’t enough to accommodate the vehicles of the airport employees and the large number of people who come to receive or see-off near and dear ones,” he explained.

Nadir Shafi said the CAA planned to construct the three-storey car parking at an estimated cost of Rs700 million. “It would accommodate around 900 vehicles with each storey taking 300 vehicles,” he added.

The official said the ASF camp built on 3.5 acres of land would be shifted to a site near the Customs Chowk where the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has provided two acres of land free of cost. He said the cost for the construction of the new ASF camp has been estimated at Rs900 million.

Nadir Shafi said that tenders for establishment of ASF camp and the new parking lot would be issued in the coming days. He said the mosque and adjacent building at the airport would also be demolished and constructed at an alternative place.

“This building and mosque are blocking the view of the façade of the airport and aren’t visible from the road. These would be demolished and a new larger mosque would be constructed at the airport,” he added.

The building adjacent to the mosque and on the left side of the airport hosts the offices of the Pakistan International Airlines (engineering) and other staff. Nadir Shafi said the airport authorities would arrange container offices for the staff to be affected by the new construction plan so that they could continue daily operations and other duties.

He said other staff would be accommodated in the new buildings which were being constructed as part of the airport expansion project. The CAA has already issued notice to the officials concerned to vacate their offices in the building. The PIA employees expressed concern over the development and questioned the logic behind the plan.

“The airport is situated in the Peshawar Cantonment and the security personnel deployed at various checkposts do not allow the people and motorists to use the airport road for travel. The people coming to receive and see-off their relatives have to pass through these checkposts and in many cases don’t get the permission to come to the airport. Demolishing this building and the mosque just to have better view of the airport building is illogical. This building isn’t unique to attract attention,” a PIA employee argued.