09 November 2004	Tuesday	25 Ramazan 1425

PESHAWAR, Nov 8: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has dropped a plan to build a new airport in Peshawar and decided to expand the existing one to cope with the constantly increasing traffic from the Frontier province.

"The plan of constructing a new airport has been dropped due to lack of space in Peshawar," said an official of the CAA.

The CAA had planned to construct a new airport in view of increasing air traffic at the existing airport and lack of enough space, said the official.

In this regard, he continued, a survey was conducted in different areas and Badabair was finally selected for the purpose by a high-level team of the CAA last year.

However, the project has now been dropped due to some operational difficulties, he said. The CAA, the official continued, was also preparing a feasibility report about expanding the existing airport by purchasing land in its vicinity.

"For long-term planning, we are preparing a report to expand the existing airport by purchasing land in its proximity, including village Nawakali".

He said the project was in its nascent stage and will take ten to twelve years to materialize.

"We are working on the expansion of space for runway, parking and passenger lounges both for domestic and international flights," he said. -APP