RAWALPINDI: The inauguration of the New Islamabad International Airport has been delayed yet again from Aug 14 to Dec this year.

The postponement this time is due to the delay in the construction of roads to the airport.

Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat’s chairman Senator Talha Mehmood conducted a detailed visit of the new airport on Tuesday where he was briefed about the pace of construction work and was told 97pc of work has been completed.

He was told that the delay is due to poor planning by the National Highway Authority (NHA) as it could not complete road links to the airport on time, according to a press release.

Senator Mehmood said the delay in the inauguration will cost billions of rupees and that the chairpersons of NHA and other relevant authorities will be called to give an explanation.

He said most of the work at the airport, including arrangements for water, electricity and gas, has been completed and that this will be the largest airport in the country, equipped with modern facilities.

He said that due to bad planning, the project has been facing delays since 2007 and that the initial cost of the project was Rs32 billion which has now increased to Rs82 billion. The Senator said the NHA has assured that link roads will be completed by November this year.

Secretary Civil Aviation Authority Irfan Elahi said 99pc of work on the air side, 96pc on terminal building and 99pc on work on land project has been completed.

“Water is being stored in the Rama Dam for the new airport and the water currently available is enough for 10 months. Land is being acquired for Kassana Dam. However work on link roads was delayed due to the inclusion of the metro bus project for the airport and there were also some issues in getting possession of the land for the roads,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2017