RAWALPINDI: With the new Islamabad airport project long embroiled in alleged irregularities, the contracts the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) awarded for the extension and rehabilitation of the existing airport have also become suspect.

A senior CAA official confided to Dawn that just three months after work on the Rs380 million project started last September, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sought details of the three contracts for scrutiny.

Some quarters have objected to CAA spending what they feel`hef ty amount` on renovating the existing Benazir Bhutto International Airport building which will stand vacant after flight operations are shifted to the new airport, the official said.

NAB investigators would probe whether any irregularities occurred in awarding them for consultancy and structural work. The third contract is about furnishing the new airport near Fatehjang, which is scheduled to be completed within two years.

`Instead of paying attention to early completion of the new airport, the CAA is wasting money,` the official quoted the critics as saying. NAB spokesman Nawazish Ali Khan told Dawn that the CAA has not yet responded to NAB`s request for copies of the contracts made in mid December.

Another letter would go to the CAA to send the documents as soon as possible. `The Constitution binds them to reply, he said.

CAA spokesman Pervez George, however, said the CAA awarded the contract to National Logistic Cell (NLC) as per rules and regulations.

`For the construction work in the high security area, the government-run NLC is the best option,` he said, without elaborating whether the award followed the PPRA rules laid down by the government.

Anyway, he said, the CAA would provide all the details of the contract and other data to the NAB soon.

`It is a wrong impression that CAA has spent billions of rupees on the reconstruction work. It is a Rs380 million project,` he stressed.

`No money has been wasted. Instead it is being spent in the public interest. The new airport will be operational after two years and air passengers need improved facilities at the existing airport in the meantime,` the CAA spokesman explained.

According to him the existing airport was facing shortage of space and CAA had to expand the terminal building for new lounges, washrooms, bigger parking area and waiting halls.