ISLAMABAD, June 24: Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) plans to award the main contract for the construction of the terminal and airside facilities of the New Islamabad International Airport by the end of the year, when it is anticipating the completion of the ongoing earth work.

The new airport will be the country’s first green field civil aerodrome of world-class standard to be built at an estimated cost of $400 million.

“We are trying to cut down on the timeframe and get the earth work completed by December, much before the scheduled completion time of 12 months ending in March 2008,” Project Director Brig Abdus Salam said. The Rs1 billion earth work project commenced after the ground-breaking ceremony in April. “Almost 20 per cent of the earth work has been completed and is progressing according to the planned time line,” the director said.

The CAA has already pre-qualified 12 contractors, all international, for the main contract for the construction of the airport. Thirty-two contractors had expressed their interest in the project. According to a source, the CAA is weighing the options of separately awarding the contracts for the terminal building and airside facilities.

The CAA expects to get the new airport ready within 36 months of the award of the final contract. If everything goes as planned the new airport would be up and ready by 2011-12.

Once constructed, its planners say, the country’s first green-field airport would be an architectural landmark with its own signature.

Moreover, according to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the airport with its passenger-friendly service facilities will be the most modern and the biggest in the country.

The airport is being constructed in Pind Ranjha near Fatehjang, approximately 30kms from Zero Point (Islamabad) and 23kms from Saddar (Rawalpindi). The project is being financed entirely by the CAA itself.

CPG Consultants (CPG) had been appointed to provide full design consultancy services for the airport’s passenger terminal building.

The building will have a modular design to handle an annual traffic of 6.5 million passengers, keeping in mind the need for extensions to be built in the longer term to accommodate future passenger traffic.