One of the biggest airports in Pakistan, the new Islamabad Airport, will be ready for operations around the latter half of July.
The airport is expected to be ready by March this year and is around 95% complete. It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 14th August.
In a meeting presided by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, several officials of the Aviation Division, National Highway Authority (NHA), Islamabad Mayor, and other officials joined in to review progress on the new airport. At the meeting, the Prime Minister stated that infrastructure projects are the backbone of our economy and essential for the public.
You can take a look at the new airport here:
The airport will be able to service 4,500 people at a time. It will have 15 parking bays and will be able to dock 2 Airbus A-380 planes at the same time. New Islamabad Airport will have state of the art facilities for cargo handling, safety and security, passenger facilitation and parking services.
Two main access roads from M-1 and M-2 motorways will be linked to the airport. Additionally the GT Road will also be linked with the airport.
A new Islamabad Metro Bus project worth Rs. 18 Billion will connect the existing Metro bus service to Islamabad Airport as well.
The bus service will also be inaugurated with the New Islamabad Airport. It will consist of 4 interchanges and 14 bus stops and will have two major sections. The first section will connect Peshawar Mor with to G-13 sector and the second section will connect G-13 to the N-5 interchange.
The airport was plagued with design flaws which were the main cause of the delays for the finishing of the airport project.
Read More: Design Error: New Islamabad Airport is Already a Disaster
Two of the runways were originally planned to allow simultaneous takeoff and landing for two airplanes at a time. The runways were constructed too close together which now only allows one plane to takeoff or land at a time.
Hopefully the new airport will not face more delays than it already has. It was originally going to be finished on December 2016 but it was delayed to June 2017 then again to August. It has been delayed by 5 years and its total cost has exceeded Rs. 100 billion in total.
Via Pakistan Today