Revised cost of Benazir Bhutto International Airport: Rs 81 billion Project may be completed by mid of 2017, PAC told

With further delay, new Benazir Bhutto International Airport is likely to be completed in mid of 2017 with a revised cost of Rs 81 billion. This was stated by the Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) before Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Wednesday. Syed Khursheed Shah chaired the meeting of PAC.
Newly appointed DG, Air Marshal Asim Suleiman (retd) informed the committee members that progress on airport was in full swing and 60 percent work of new airport has been completed. Revised PC-I having additional cost would be sent to the Planning Division for its approval.
He contended that original PC-I was not futuristic and had certain deficiencies. Original PC-I costing Rs 37 billion had not included essential procurements and construction work, he added. Last time, PC-I was revised in 2014, he said.
A briefing on new Benazir Bhutto International Airport Project has been arranged for the members of PAC.
Chairman Committee challenged that CAA management provided incorrect percentage of project's completion which is up to 60 percent. Calculation based on the CAA's data, he said 85 percent work on airport has been done with a cost of Rs 52 billion excluding cost of land, water dam and electricity. It required additional cost of around Rs 10 billion for 100 percent completion, he added.
In his ruling, chairman committee said it seemed that the management of CAA was unprepared to answer the questions of members committee and granted one month to prepare for the briefing.
Earlier, DG CAA said that delay in completion of work on new airport project has various reasons. These include deficiencies in scope of original PC-I and cost of work, poor performance of previous PMC (M/s Louis Berger), delay in tendering of major system, technology up-gradation, non possession of site and eviction of illegal occupation till 2014, court cases and frequent changes of project directors and mismanagement.
He further said various inquiry reports have been held previously like Shahid Niaz Report, suo moto of Supreme Court of Pakistan, FIA inquiry and Shams ul Mulk special report.
He said the management has received Shams ul Mulk report which is under review now. He further disclosed that the Shams ul Mulk report also has references of other inquiry reports and are also available on website of CAA.
In common findings on delay, Shahid Niaz report and FIA report states that package zero, splitting of project into 17 packages, making of PC-l on rough estimates, substandard performance of PMC, mismanagement of various packages are major factors.
In specific findings of FIA, its report stated that wrong selection of design consultant - M/s CPG, hiring of consultancy Firm M/s LBG whose head were non engineers, awarding of Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) contract to the World Bank debarred firm delayed the project.
Shahid Niaz report stated specific delay are due to possession of left over embedded areas, additional requirement of land for future development, new access being developed by the NHA through the Thalian Interchange on M2, designing of flexible pavement for runways instead of rigid pavement, conversion of the parallel taxiway/emergency runway into a full fledged secondary runway, termination and allowing reconstitution of a new JV (Lagan 600/o TAPL35% and Habib 5%) against all contractual norms, insertion of sub clause (e) under the heading certificates and payments clause 60.1, in all ongoing contracts, the excess space created in passenger terminal building (PTB), contract of the Hydrant Refuelling System and restructuring of works directorate of CAA.
Member Committee Muhammad Pervaiz Malik said that it was not a good decision to split the project into 17 different packages.
Sheikh Rasheed further criticised the CAA about tendering package zero worth Rs 1 billion of earthwork at least one and half year before the actual main package of runway construction and said it is a misadventure by the CAA authorities, just to facilitate the ground breaking ceremony. It was awarded before having any final design or drawings.