Aviation Division identifies locations for high-rise buildings in major cities

The Aviation Division has identified dozens of locations for high-rise buildings in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan, official sources told Business Recorder. The Cabinet in its meeting held on March 26, 2019 regarding vertical expansion of housing in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) directed that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) shall revisit its "restricted area list" on similar lines for other major cities within two weeks.
Civil Aviation Rules-1994 (Rule 68) defines height restriction in terms of various Obstacle Limitation Surfaces (OLS) around an aerodrome up to a maximum limit of 15.24 kms. International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) also defines similar criteria to safeguard aerodrome. Besides these OLSA, instrument flight procedures for aircraft operation have to be safeguarded through obstacle clearance criteria to ensure clear flights paths. For all remaining areas falling within the obstacle limitation surfaces, provisions of Rules 68 and ICAO relevant standards shall remain in force.
Keeping in view the legal position, the CAA has conducted an aeronautical study in coordination with Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Pakistan Navy to implement the Prime Minister's vision of high rise constructions in complex environment of four major cities at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan.
Karachi city is too complex with two air force bases (PAF Base Faisal and PAF Base Masroor) besides one civil aerodrome of JIAP Karachi in close proximity. OLS of Faisal Base in south west partly overlaps with JIAP Karachi while western funnel of JIAP overlaps with OLS of PAF Masroor Base. There is also significant overlapping of outer horizontal surfaces.
Based on number of considerations including track miles required for departures to gain height, visual circling of the runways, surveillance traffic pattern etc. some areas have been indentified towards North and South which can be made available for high-rise structures.
Within Lahore city, there exists one large controlled aerodrome (Allama Iqbal International Airport (AIIAP) which is being used for all commercial/military flights and an uncontrolled small aerodrome (Walton) which is being used for general aviation operations. The AIIAP is situated around 20 kms west of Pakistan-India border while Walton aerodrome is situated about 6 kms west of AIIAP. The OLS of Walton partly overlaps with that of AIIAP. Thus only part of outer horizontal of AIIAP beyond Walton conical surface could be identified.
Due to close proximity of border, eastern airspace has no practical utilization and can easily accommodate the required high-rise structures. Considerable portion of outer horizontal of AIIAP on eastern side can be made available for high-rise structure.
Peshawar Airport (Bacha Khan International Airport) is a joint user airfield which simultaneously serves as busy operational PAF Base in addition to all civil airport activities. All the civil aircraft operation to/from BKIAP is confined towards east due to a number of concerns on placing trajectories towards west due to factors including topography, security concerns etc. Moreover, the area situated in south east of the aerodrome around 10 kms from existing airport was identified for future independent civil airport.
Considerable portion of outer horizontal surface on western side is not being utilized for any civil flying procedure which can be made available for high-rise structures. There exists one civil aerodrome in Multan city which is also a PAF Forward Operating Base. It remains in state of preparedness for military flying all the time because it is an alternate to PAF Base Rafiqui. The outer horizontal surface needs to be safeguarded for circling approach up to category D and room is to be kept for initial climb during turning after takeoff.
The Aviation Division says that considerable portion of outer horizontal on east can be spared without affecting existing International Flight Rules (IFR) procedures for construction of high-rise buildings up to 900-ft AGL and good part can be spared for heights up to 450-ft AGL. The outer horizontal towards west is being used by army aviation, however. A big portion can still be spared for construction up to 450-ft AGL.