CAA’s white elephant

Delays and increase in costs are often the fate of mega projects, even under favourable circumstances. The sheer scale, manpower and variables involved make it virtually impossible for every dimension to be covered smoothly. Pakistan is no stranger to this — several mega projects like bridges, dams, motorways and the metro bus system have strained both budgets and the public’s patience with their astronomic costs and multiple deadline extensions. Islamabad’s new airport is another such white elephant, with costs now estimated to run up to Rs100 billion and the December, 2016 deadline will not be met. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has not given any new deadline; however, according to a senior official, the project is likely to take significantly longer than expected earlier.

The Islamabad airport is a classic case of the errors that continue to be recurrent in any developmental work in Pakistan. A lack of foresight is most commonly cited as the reason the airport is taking so much longer to construct. Costs are higher than expected, simply because the initial estimates failed to account for several crucial aspects during the budgeting stage. The fact that several foreign experts hired to consult on the project do not have the qualifications necessary for the job, did not bode well. Also, the firm hired for crafting the airport design has been accused of bribing officials in other countries. There was a lack of oversight by the CAA and as a result, design deficiencies were discovered when it was much too late to make amends. The project has sucked up too much money and time for the design to be altered. There has already been an enormous amount of negative publicity surrounding the new airport but the project needs to be completed, regardless of its flaws because the current Islamabad airport is in a shoddy state. Every delay and budgetary hike draws more ire from the public. However, it is perhaps still too much to hope that this fiasco will provide some lessons in project management to our authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2016.

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