Come fly with me... eventually

How not to build an airport, Part 958. To the surprise of nobody the completion of the new Islamabad airport has officially been delayed yet again. The latest date for completion — officially — is June 2017 and if anybody believes that, they need their reality calibration servicing. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the body entrusted with the conception and birth of this monstrosity to the southwest of the capital. It has become increasingly apparent that the CAA did not do the Airport Midwifery 101 course prior to embarking on this project. A source close to the project has described the new date as “laughable”. The same source had speculated in the summer of 2014 that it would take five years from that date — i.e., 2019 and that was only if there was a fair wind and glitch-free progress. It seems safe to assume that it could be 2020 before the umbilical is finally snipped and the new airport operational.

Ground was broken on the project in April 2007 and it has been uphill all the way ever since. The original completion date was 2011. (Stop laughing.) The prime minister offered a hostage to fortune in March 2014 when he visited the site and ordered the workers to have it completed by March 31, 2015. (We told you to stop laughing.) Further deadlines have come and gone. The flaws in the runway have not been solved after nine years. Access routes and utilities such as water and power have yet to be brought online or even started and the Public Accounts Committee recently announced that the work was “60 per cent completed”. (Permission to weep granted.) Billions of rupees are said to have been siphoned off and the project is reputed to be a happy hunting ground for any contractor to get rich quick. Meanwhile the dilapidated chai khana that is the current Islamabad airport continues to provide what are rated as some of the worst facilities in the world. National airports, their efficacy or otherwise, are defining national identifiers and the omnishambles that is the new Islamabad airport speaks volumes to a wider world.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2016.

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