PM Abbasi inaugurates new Islamabad airport
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi officially inaugurated the new Islamabad International Airport on Tuesday, the first greenfield airport of Pakistan destined to emerge as one of Asia’s major aviation hubs after its operationalisation.
Equipped with cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art facilities for passengers to meet the 21st-century challenges, the IIA is also the largest airport of Pakistan.
It is capable of serving nine million passengers and 50,000 metric tons cargo every year in its first phase, while the modular designs enables the expansion to serve up to 25 million passengers every year by 2025.
The airport project was conceived initially in 1984 for which land was acquired in Fateh Jang the same year to cater need to the increasing passenger load at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
“The current annual turnover of passengers at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport is about 4.5 million. The number of passengers is growing by 14 per cent annually as compared to national air passenger growth rate of less than four per cent,” said Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Deputy Director General Amir Mehboob.
Constructed at a cost of more than Rs100 billion, the airport is connected to twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad via Kashmir Highway and Motorway via Thallian interchange. A four-lane highway has also been constructed by the National Highway Authority (NHA) to cater to cargo traffic.
Mehboob said several tests and trials had been conducted to improve reliability and efficiency of systems at the airport. Spanning over 4,238 acres of land, the airport consists of four-level passenger terminal building, two runways, taxiways, apron and parking bays for wide-body aircraft
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