New Benazir Bhutto International Airport will be completed by December 25, 2016 but will be opened to flight operations from July 2017. This was revealed by Director General Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Air Marshal Asim Suleiman (Retd) to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday. The management of Civil Aviation Authority gave a briefing on the new airport to the PAC. The DG said that original PC1 of Rs 36.8 billion was prepared in March 2007.
Revised PC1 of Rs 81.1 billion was approved in April 2014. The management has spent Rs 52.3 billion so far and 64.5 percent work has been completed. In presentation, the DG argued that original PC1 was deficient and based on rough cost estimates as of December 2007. Cost estimates were without detailed designing of facilities. At that time only Airside Infrastructure was included. The cost was increased due to addition of new item of works, increase in currency fluctuations and price escalation, increase in custom duties and taxes, increase in management cost and variation orders. Original PC1 costs Rs 36.8 billion, new items costs Rs 22.3 billion, difference on account of PC1 and tendered cost Rs 6.8 billion, variations Rs 6.2 billion, FEC fluctuation Rs 4.8 billion and escalation was Rs 3.9 billion.
Additional works includes external electrification of commercial areas as per revised master plan, natural gas connection, security and comprehensive security apparatus. The committee also took serious notice of the extension plan of Lahore airport. Syed Khurshid Shah claimed that Rs 74 billion has been allocated for the extension project and would be given on 40 year lease. However, the DG CAA said that no cost has been estimated yet as the study on the project is going on.
Responding to a question, the DG said the Civil Aviation Authority is working on a new national CAA policy. He argued that civic bodies should not provide NOCs to those housing schemes which come in 15 kms radius of any airport. Committee Member Shaikh Rashid said the project has a faulty design as no link road, electricity and water is available at the site. Earlier, the committee constituted a three-member committee to resolve the contentious issue of awarding dual degrees between Comsat University and Higher Education Commission (HEC). The committee comprises of Syed Naveed Qamar, Shafqat Mahmood and Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and is scheduled to meet next Thursday.
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