KARACHI, Jan 23: The Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Mr Farooq Rehmatullah, on Tuesday unveiled a plan to develop two commercial and residential projects, to be called the ‘Airport City’, near Karachi and Lahore airports.

The projects would be developed on 1,000 and 350 acres of the CAA land in two cities, he said.

He said that the projects had been approved by the authority’s board of directors and work on preparing a master plan would begin soon.

He said that the estimated cost of the ‘Airport City’ project was around US$4.5 billion, which would be financed by the foreign investors. “This project will take seven to eight years to complete,” he added.

According to him, cost of the Karachi project would be US$ 3.5 billion and that of the Lahore project $1 billion.

Mr Rehmatullah said that the new Islamabad International Airport project was on track and the earth work would begin on February 1.

“It is a CAA-financed project with an estimated cost of Rs30 billion and would be completed in three and a half years’ time,” he said.

About new Gwadar airport, he said that development work would start in May this year and the Rs2.6 billion project would be completed by April 2009.

The CAA wanted to revamp Multan airport. An amount of Rs2.5 billion is required for the project.

“President Gen Pervez Musharraf has announced Rs1 billion for the airport and we are talking with the government for the rest of the amount,” he said.

Mr Rehmatullah said that the radar and navigation system being used in the country was 35 to 40 years old and needed replacement.

The system at all airports is being upgraded and the replacement work at Karachi and Lahore airports would cost 60 million Euros.

He denied reports that the CAA had been divided into three separate entities as a result of restructuring.