January 22, 2007	Monday	Muharram 02, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: Work on the new Islamabad airport may be delayed because of Planning and Development Division’s insistence on additional paperwork, according to sources.

The sources said that the division had objected to requests made by the Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Authority for approval of funds amounting to Rs2.6 billion for the purchase of additional land and extension in the approval period of Rs100 million without filing reports on the project’s physical and financial progress.

A P&DD letter dated Dec 30, 2006, pointed out to the Ministry of Defence that the request for funds for additional land, including Rs1 billion to be spent on land levelling, was an additional cost, requiring a PC-I.

The letter said that the CAA had proposed certain actions in their original summary, seeking anticipatory approval but had failed to give itemised details of the physical and financial progress.

The division asked the Ministry of Defence to prepare a PC-I, seeking Ecnec’s permission for purchasing additional land and sought clarifications for allowing it an extension in the anticipatory approval till June 30, to spend Rs100 million on certain other activities relating to the new airport.

The letter also raised objections to the appointment of a management consultant before hiring a design consultant.

The PC-II for the consultancy services has also not been prepared even after a year, despite its being one of the conditions for anticipatory approval.

In December 2006, the CAA secured approval for a PC-I to finance the airport land (runway and earthwork etc.) at a cost of Rs1.02 billion, which would be included in the Rs2.6 billion allocated in the CAA’s annual development programme for 2006-07.

Documents showed that the ministry was granted a conditional anticipatory approval for an expenditure of Rs100 million in six months, till June 30, 2006, which called upon it to fulfil all formalities.

However, instead of spending the allocated funds during the stipulated time after fulfilling all conditionalities, the ministry was seeking an extension till June 30.

Meanwhile, senior CAA officials, who were contacted by this correspondent about the letter, claimed that the authority’s board, being an authorised and legally empowered agency, had already granted the requisite approval in its meeting in Islamabad a couple of days ago. They said that the project could not be delayed further and it would take up the matter raised in the letter with the authorities concerned.