RAWALPINDI: The automatic fire alarm and fire suppression system and extinguishers installed at the new Islamabad International Airport (IIA) have not been made functional.

In a letter, Additional Director Shahid Aslam sought project director Asif Gilani’s attention towards the non-functioning fire alarm and fire suppression system. He said all fire-related equipment either remained switched off or were not operational and the technical ground staff facility was yet to be made operational.

He pointed out that the control valves of sprinklers at level 1, 2 and 4 were closed and the rooms were locked.

He requested the project director to take immediate action to avoid any untoward incident.

When a senior official of the Civil Aviation Authority was contacted, he told Dawn that some problems did exist but they were related to the project director.

Another aviation official said sometimes the fire alarm started blaring without any emergency; therefore, it had been closed from day one.

Besides the non-functioning fire control system, technical ground support department has also been neglected.

A senior official of the department said they were shifted to the new airport in haste on May 3 with no building, no shade, no washroom and no drinking water and the staff members had to work under the open sky.

He said one or two staff members of the maintenance section were getting sick due to the heat on daily basis.

He said only two shipping freight containers had been provided for the maintenance staff. Since the shipping containers are made of iron sheets, the temperature gets double inside the containers making it almost impossible for anyone to stay inside. The project director could not be contacted for comments.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2018