New Islamabad International Airport has handled more than 4.7 million domestic and international passengers since it became operational last year.
According to Aviation Division’s Secretary and Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) Director-General Shahrukh Nusrat, the number of passengers is increasing at the airport, turning it into a regional hub.
He added that the CAA and Aviation Division officers monitor the airport regularly. They received a lot of complaints initially, but the number of complaints has gradually decreased over time.
The secretary said that presently, there is only one primary runway at the airport. However, the administration is trying to turn things around. Talks are underway with engineers about converting the parallel taxi track into a usable runway.
The airport was called the country’s first state-of-the-art airport by the previous government. It incurred at least Rs. 105 billion in construction costs. The cost covers everything from the modern security scanners to the truck art on the terminal building.
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Around 132,000 plants have been added to make it green while another 250,000 will be planted around the airport under the Clean and Green Pakistan campaign.
The airport is spread over an area of 4,238-acres and has a planned capacity to accommodate nine million passengers and 50,000 metric tons of cargo every year. It also contains a food court for visitors, a children park, and a 50-bed trauma center.
For the aircraft operations, there is a four-story terminal building, six taxi links, two runways, three rapid taxiways, a cargo apron, five aprons, and designated parking bay for wide-body aircraft inclusive of Airbus A380.
The airport also contains the air traffic control complex, a separate terminal for cargo, and refueling facilities. It has 32 domestic lounges and 70 check-in counters. There are multiple business class and first class lounges in domestic and international departure areas.
The airport has 33 parking bases and 15 bridges, six of which are for domestic flights and nine for international flights. The total capacity of the parking lot is 2,200 cars. There is also a 282-acre dam called Rama with a capacity of 2,122 acre-feet near the airport. A 700-acre Kisana Dam is also under construction close by.
Several sanitation plants and a water treatment plant have also been installed at the airport.
Via: ExpressTribune
