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The opening of New airport is nowhere in sight as new controversies keep coming up
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The much-awaited project of the capital city Islamabad “New Islamabad International Airport” seems to have landed into a new controversy, further delaying the opening of airport.
According to the latest reports, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has awarded a contract to an incompetent company, Hasan Construction.
The company which had the contract for construction of a small dam nearby was not registered with the Pakistan Engineering Council and submitted fake experience documents, the Director General of Audit informed the PAC.
Public Accounts Committee directed anti-graft body to hold an inquiry into the award of contract for construction of a small dam at the new Islamabad airport.
Due to water shortage at the airport site, officials decided to construct the dam to supply 3.3 million gallons of water per day.
According to the reports, the contract valued at Rs664.4 million is just the tip of the iceberg that shows the incompetence of government departments in handling a project whose cost has drastically increased from Rs35 billion to over Rs100 billion.
But according to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) the awarded firm “Hassan Construction”, did not have the right expertise to perform the job nor registered with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) and having fake documents of experience with the resume.
“Hassan Construction” claimed that they had undertaken projects in Turkey previously but no documented proof was demanded by CAA before awarding the contract.
According to Director General CAA asserted that the increase was due to the CAA’s lack of experience in construction of greenfield airports. This was yet another excuse that PAC members didn’t like at all.
Earlier in Public Accounts Committee, the CAA had given assurance to the committee for completion of construction work on New Islamabad Airport and landing plane but the date of inauguration of New Airport was extended many times.
However, the Metro Bus route will be operational by December 25, the committee was informed.
According to sources, there is a lot of work on the new Islamabad airport to be done and there was no international contract to run it.
Islamabad’s long-delayed New Airport which was anticipated to open in December 2017 now may not open until next year despite the promises and commitments by the government.