March 16, 2006	Thursday	Safar 15, 1427

KARACHI, March 15: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) hopes to record a surplus of Rs4.5 billion during the current financial year, a meeting of the CAA board held under the chairmanship of Lt Gen (retd) Tariq Waseem was informed on Wednesday.

The surplus recorded in the first half of the financial year, up to December 2005, was Rs2.4 billion. The board was also informed that Rs4 billion loans had been paid well in advance resulting in reduced cost of financing.

The board noted that the CAA was at present focusing on the mega projects, including New Gawadar International Airport, major upgrdation of Multan airport and construction of New Islamabad International Airport (NIIA).

The NIIA project was earlier planned on BOT due to financial constraints. However, with the present financial state the project is being taken up with CAA’s own resources with only a small amount of borrowed finances which are planned to be paid off within first two years of completion of the project, says a press release.