PESHAWAR, March 30: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) needs to acquire some 10 acres of land from the military authorities at a high security zone on the main Khyber Road for expansion of the Peshawar International Airport, it is learnt reliably.

Official sources told Dawn that NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani, in a meeting held in January last, had assured the CAA that land would be acquired from the military authorities to initiate work on the long-awaited project of the airport, being used simultaneously for civilian and military purposes.

They said the governor was likely to take up the matter with the quarter master general of the Pakistan Army. The meeting, they said, had been delayed due to engagements of the governor.

An official said that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had agreed in principle to provide a portion of its base for the expansion project, but military authorities were yet to give the nod and the CAA had left the matter for the governor to settle.

According to the sources, the CAA wanted to obtain some 10 acres of land in front of the main terminal building of the airport along the Khyber Road. They said that existing car-parking area, adjacent to the terminal building, would be shifted to the new site if the army agreed to provide the land.Officials said that existing infrastructure at the airport was inadequate to cope with the growing air traffic and passenger load at the airport. The CAA handles about 35 domestic and international flights per day while the quantum of passenger traffic has reached about one million annually.

Provincial government is demanding construction of new airport and site was also identified for the project on the Kohat Road. But the CAA is not in favour of constructing a new airport and suggested to expand the existing infrastructure.

Sajjid Habib, a senior official at the CAA headquarters who is looking after the proposed expansion project of the airport, told Dawn that the matter was likely to be resolved within the next few months.

“Once the CAA obtains the land from the army, expansion work would be launched soon,” he said, adding that the CAA was constructing a mini-runway to cope with the growing air traffic at the Peshawar airport. About 6,000 feet long parallel mini-runway is constructed at the airport to further increase landing and take-off capacity.

Under the proposed expansion project, a new terminal building would be constructed and the car-parking area would be shifted to the new site. Sources said that the CAA had identified site to provide accommodation facilities to some 400 personnel of the Airport Security Force (ASF) who had been living in tents for the last 25 years.

Both organisations had a dispute over 34 kanals of land presently occupied by the ASF. The CAA officials said that the dispute had been resolved and they would get possession of the site soon.