LAHORE, June 26: The commissioning of the new passenger terminal complex of the Lahore International Airport has been delayed till Nov 9 owing to delay in rescheduling of loans and suspension of shipment of infrastructure material following terrorist acts in the region, particularly Karachi.
The Civil Aviation Authority had claimed earlier that the project would be completed by June 24. It had said it would take another three months to examine the functionality of the new airport before its formal commissioning. The CAA has, however, so far managed to complete only around 90 per cent of the work.
The CAA claims that the project could have been completed on schedule had there been a smooth flow of finances and shipment of required material. Currently, the finishing of civil works and installation of electrical and mechanical equipment is in progress.
The new terminal complex project director, Brig Tauseefuz Zaman, said the funding had remained suspended from Jan 31 to March 8. Consequently, he said, the contractors had stopped shipping the required material from Jan 31 till the first week of this month. “Now, the contractors have started shipping material,” he said.
He claimed that some $27 million loans had been rescheduled. He said the UK had rescheduled its loans on March 8. It was followed by Japan. He said Germany had just allowed payment of the loans, while the Netherlands would hopefully reschedule its $2.5 million loan in a couple of weeks.
Despite the suspension of funds and material for nearly five months, Brig Zaman claimed, the CAA had not demobilized work.
He said the CAA now hoped to make the terminal functional by Nov 9, the birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal. The airport has already been renamed as Allama Iqbal International Airport.
“In order to achieve the target, we are focusing on public utility areas like concords, arrival and departure lounges, briefing areas and operational areas for airline. Some places not meant for the public would continue to be developed and finished after the formal inauguration.
Answering a question, he said, the CAA had made special arrangements for the 60 foreigners working on the project. He said police and Rangers patrolled the area to protect the foreigners from any untoward incident on road or at their residence.
The terminal is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs10.32 billion. It will have the capacity to handle passenger traffic of up to around 6.5 million people a year. The existing facilities as the Lahore International Airport are designed to cater to the needs of around 1.5 million passengers.
The new terminal building, completely designed and supervised by the Nespak, is spreads over 660 acres of land acquired mainly from the army. The building is bases on a two-way linear modular system for departing and arriving passengers.
The terminal is located at a distance of about seven kilometres from the old airport building. A dual express carriageway will connect it with the city. The complex includes terminal building, apron and parallel taxiway.
The terminal building has a total covered area of 75,000 square meters, seven passenger-boarding bridges, 55 check-in counters (35 counters for domestic passengers and 20 for international passengers) and five baggage reclaim belts. It houses an air-traffic control tower and allied facilities, airlines’ commercial and first class lounges, shops, restaurant and banks. It will also have transit facilities for passengers.
The apron is spread over 150,000 square meters and has the capacity to accommodate 20 aircraft at a time compared to the existing terminal’s capacity to accommodate two Jumbo jets at a time besides five bays for smaller aircraft.
The new terminal also has the facility of underground full-loop fuel hydrant refuelling system, which is considered safer and environment-friendly.
The 3.2 kilometres long and 23 meters wide taxiway is connected with the existing runways of the old terminal on four points.
