Runway to nowhere: New airport due date just keeps moving up

Project cost has almost tripled since 2005; graft, mismanagement blamed

ISLAMABAD:

Delays and alleged irregularities in the completion of the new Islamabad airport have escalated the cost of the project from Rs37 billion to Rs85 billion, an additional burden of Rs48 billion on the national kitty.

The project, which had a 30-month completion deadline, was announced in January 2005 and construction began in April 2007.

Later, the PC-I of the project was revised in March 2012, so does the cost to Rs66 billion. This was later re-revised to Rs95 billion and the completion deadline was moved to October 2016.

This was despite the fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had set March 2015 as the new deadline during a visit to the site earlier this year.

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) officials, however, were reluctant to give exact figures regarding the cost of the project and the reasons behind the delay.

During that visit, the prime minister had expressed dismay over the delay in the completion of project and also ordered an inquiry to determine the causes of the inordinate delay.

An FIA inquiry suggested criminal action against seven CAA officials including four former project directors for ‘negligence and misconduct’, while similar recommendations were made against senior officials of the management and design consultants.

To date, no punishments have been handed out based on the report.

In October, during a visit to the site, members of the Senate and National Assembly standing committees on Cabinet Secretariat noted with concern that the project might take several years to become operational.

At the time, CAA Chairman Muhammad Ali Gardezi gave a presentation and said, among other things, that work on the access road to the airport had not yet begun, while provision of water was another major issue as the area was suffering from water scarcity.

The FIA inquiry report and sources working on the site have previously stated that the site was a ‘bad choice’ as some of the area was 30 to 35 feet deep and required extensive levelling.

The source said the lack of utilities such as water and power also meant that extensive rainwater harvesting had to be done, and this might have further affected the soil quality.

It has also been reported that Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Khurshid Shah, who is also Chairman of Public Accounts Committee wrote a letter to the prime minister and pointed out delay in completion of the project.

The report said PAC meetings held in May this year also took serious notice and expressed concerns over the speed of work on the project.

Sources told APP that the project was heading towards a financial tragedy because of unnecessary intervention from the Aviation Division, which is siding with a resourceful contractor. It has also been reported that cracks repeatedly develop on the runway due to faulty work by the contractor, and ultimately the CAA would have to bear the cost of repairing the runway.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2014.