LAHORE, March 28: Sialkot International Airport, the first in the country being developed on a self-help basis, will be operational from August, says a Civil Aviation Authority official. The Rs2 billion project is in the final stages of completion and would be ready for cargo flights in August this year and for passengers in June, 2006.

A senior Civil Aviation Authority official told Dawn that the airport, having the longest runway in the country, would cost Rs2 billion. The Lahore airport terminal was constructed at a cost of around Rs14 billion, he added.

The project was first approved by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who allocated land for the airport’s construction. However, President Gen Pervez Musharraf soon after taking over in October 1999 had shelved the project, describing it as economically unviable.

But later in February 2001, the president approved the project after Nespak had given it a go-ahead in its feasibility report.

Briefing a group of journalists from Lahore on the project on Saturday, Sialkot International Airport Limited Chief Executive Khawar Anwar Khwaja said it was an initiative of the businessmen of the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“As many as 223 businessmen have pooled in for the project and the government has provided a matching grant of Rs230 million,” he said.

He said an MoU was signed between the SCCI and the Civil Aviation Authority with the approval of the defence ministry in 2001. The CAA would monitor the project.

He said the SIAL, a public limited company, had been formed under the auspices of the SCCI and its shares would be floated in the market after the completion of the airport.

Mr Khwaja said the expected cargo tonnage at the time of the airport’s opening would be 24,000 tons and by the end of 2012, over 53,000 tons of cargo would be lifted from the airport.

Technically and financially feasible, he said the project would stimulate significant trade activity in Gujranwala and adjoining districts, and act as a catalyst for growth in exports.

Besides opening new horizons in agro-based exports, he said the project would generate passenger and cargo traffic. It would provide an alternative runway of comparable length and strength to Lahore airport in case of emergencies.

He said commercial exploitation of additional land adjacent to the airport would ensure an easy stream of additional income. He pointed out some bureaucratic hurdles in the project, but hoped that the government would help ensure timely completion of the mega-project.

Mr Khwaja said they were looking for the governments help in providing security, setting up immigration, customs and meteorological facilities at the airport.

Located in the heart of Punjab’s industrial hub, and spanning 1,002 acres, the SIAL will offer efficient links with Gujranwala, Wazirabad, Gujrat, Narowal and Mandi Bahauddin areas, the export processing zone and the Sialkot dry port.

The airport, which will have a 3.6km-long runway, would handle 60 per cent domestic and 40 per cent international aircraft movement. It would provide landing facility to wide-bodied aircraft, and will be the country’s fourth big airport after those in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.