ISLAMABAD: Cost escalations from Rs37 billion to Rs95 billion, delay of over half a decade, change of five project directors and, above all, auditors’ reservations over Rs41 billion spent on the project have marred the construction of the New Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Islamabad.

These facts and figures were presented before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly on Thursday. Earlier during the day, the committee members visited the site of the under-construction airport near Fatehjang. The PAC meeting, chaired by Syed Khursheed Shah, was exclusively convened to determine what led to the massive mismanagement in the project.

Financial irregularities and administrative mismanagement weren’t the only grey areas in the project. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials present at the meeting acknowledged lacunas in its engineering design as well. Moreover, they said, despite relentless drilling they were yet to find underground water which was turning out to be another headache for the authority.

The CAA is expecting to handle 6.5 million passengers annually once the airport becomes operational for whom supply of water would be needed. Last but not the least, the PAC was told that the National Highway Authority (NHA) was yet to secure land for the construction of a link road to the airport.

“The construction of the road will need around two years. If the airport starts its operations by 2016, as the CAA has planned, it cannot be fully utilised in the absence of an adequate road. Therefore, the construction of the road needs to be started immediately,” a CAA official said during the meeting.

To a query, the meeting was told that so far the government had suffered a loss of Rs5.5 billion which may increase once the project is completed.

Officials of the audit department told the PAC meeting that the project can be quoted as a classical example of official negligence.

Just quoting one example, they said soon after the project was initiated, government auditors pointed out serious omissions by the consultancy firm in its execution. The firm, CAA officials present during the meeting concurred, never hired qualified engineers and carried out the work through diploma holders.

“In such projects, only an engineer clears the bill, but in case of the under-construction airport, billions of rupees were released through these diploma holders,” said an official who recommended the registration of criminal cases against those who had allegedly connived in this felony.

The groundbreaking of the new airport was jointly performed by the then president and prime minister in April 2007. To be completed within 30 months, initially the cost of the project was estimated at Rs37 billion.

In March 2012, the PC-I of the project was revised to Rs66 billion. At present, the PAC was told, the CAA has once again revised its expenditures putting them at Rs95 billion. October 2016 is the anticipated date for the completion of the airport.

It may be noted that in September last year the Supreme Court removed the project director and constituted a steering committee, comprising officials from all the relevant ministries, to oversee its construction. An additional secretary heads the committee.

When asked, the committee was told that the new board of the CAA had been constituted which would soon meet to finalise the revised cost of the project and its new project director.

In the end, PAC Chairman Mr Shah after consultation with the committee members decided to have a second briefing from the CAA after three months. Meanwhile, the CAA officials were asked to fix individual specific responsibilities in cases of financial and administrative mismanagement, besides determining when the airport would be ready for operations.