ISLAMABAD: Federal Secretary for Aviation Mohammad Ali Gardezi on Tuesday assured the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat that the New Islamabad Airport would be ready by October 2016.

However, he said he was not certain if the construction of the access road to the airport would be completed by that time.

The meeting of the committee chaired by MNA Rana Mohammad Hayat Khan was held in the Parliament House on Tuesday.

Mr Gardezi said according to his information work on the access road by the National Highway Authority (NHA) had been delayed due to non-completion of the land acquisition.

`There is a clause in the rules that the roadcan be constructed without the land acquisition. The NHA may consider this option to complete the project on time,` he said.

Rana Hayat, the chairman of the committee, told Dawn that he was considering calling the NHA to the committee to listen to their point of view.

`I believe that only Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can decide about the fate of the new airport,` he said.

The new airport project was conceived in 1984 and the same year the purchase of land started near Fatehjang. The land was purchased from Rs30,000 to Rs500,000 per kanal with the average rate of Rs70,000 per kanal.

In 2004, the then prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, laid the foundation of the airport. The construction work was started without the approval of any design and the contract was awarded to 17 contractors.

The initial PC-I of Rs37 billion was approved in 2008 but it had no mention of the fuel system, radar and radio control building, aprons, sewage treatment plant, electricity and availability of water.

The delay in the appointment of a design consultant, unavailability of an access road, illegal occupation on the land and improper sequencing of the award of work delayed the project. Moreover, there was also a delay in the preparation of the design and time lossduring an investigation and litigation.

Currently, Benazir Bhutto International Airport caters to three million people per year and has 20 check-in counters and parking area for 400 vehicles.

The new airport with 90 check-in counters and parking facility for 2,200 vehicles will cater to 15 million people every year. Mr Gardezi said 83.46 per cent work on the new airport had been completed.

He said the access road which the aviation department had suggested from Golra Chowk to the new airport passing through Haji Chowk was the most appropriate.

`The road suggested by us also had the option of a metro bus or a train service but in the new design of the road, which passes from housing societies of Zone I, there is no such facility,` he said.

MNA Rana Hayat gave a proposal to use the motorway as the access road for the airport.

However, Mr Gardezi said he was not in favour ofitbecause ofthenature ofthe trafHconthe motorway and for the airport.

In reply to questions by the committee members, Mr Gardezi said after a terror incident in which an attempt was make to hit an aircraft at Peshawar airport, it was decided that constructions would not be allowed at a distance of seven kilometres around the new airport.