ISLAMABAD - The inordinate delay in completion of the new Benazir international airport project due to non-acquisition of already-purchased land is not only expected to increase its cost by Rs23billion but is also likely to affect the timeframe for its completion.
According to a well placed source, the mega project has been envisioned to be completed at a cost of Rs 37 billion in the PC-1. “With delay in completion of this project over the various technical reasons, its final cost will have to be revised up to Rs60billion,” added the source.
Giving details of the project, he said the original contract was awarded on July 24, 2008. “The leading partner in the contract was a US-based company Louis Berger and its local (Pakistan-based) partner was ECIL, which had built a flyover in Karachi and when it collapsed, the ECIL was thrown out of the project and the NESPAK was brought in,” the source said, when the NESPAK was found unable to meet the deadline, it was asked to dissociate itself from the project.
Afterwards, another company AA Associates was given the contract. Interestingly, at a time when this company prepared to start work on the project site, it also faced serious problem as the already purchased land had yet to be acquired because the sellers refused to vacate the land to enable the AA Associates to complete the project by August 31, 2013, the source said.
The source said whenever the authorities attempted to acquire the already purchased land a law and order situation was created as the sellers resorted to gunfire and the work on the project came to a halt.
“The land acquisition is the biggest hurdle in the completion of this project,” he said, adding the access roads had also yet to be constructed. “This is another major reason in the delay of this project.”
He said a total of 17 contracts of various sections of the airport had been awarded and they were almost near completion as, to quote, Technical Associates – one of the companies working on two sub-projects – had completed 75 per cent work on one project while it had done 97 per cent of work on the other.
“Same is the situation with other 15 sub-projects,” the source said, fearing that in case the land was not timely acquired and the access roads were not speedily built, the cost of this project would further increase and the deadline would not be met to complete construction of the airport.