New Islamabad International Airport or Gandhara International Airport is an under

construction international airport in Attock District, it is located 20 km from the center of Islamabad
and 23 km from Rawalpindi, it will serve both the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, as well
as Attock District too. Its built to replace the existingBenazir Bhutto International Airport. It is
expected to be complete and operational by December 2016.
The airport project was conceived in 1984 for which the acquisition of land started near Fateh
Jang the same year. Once completed it will be the first Greenfield airport in Pakistan, it will consist of
90 check-in counters and a parking facility for 2,000 vehicles will cater to ten million people every
year. It will see car parking for 2,000 vehicles, a covered plaza area for 200 cars, a control tower,
maintenance hangar, a 15-gate terminal with ten remote gates, a four star hotel, convention centre,
duty-free shops, food court and 42 immigration counters.

The plan to construct a new airport for Islamabad was conceived in the late 1980s
to deal with the problem of increased passenger load at the Benazir Bhutto
International Airport. The current annual turnover of passengers at the current
airport is about 3.5 million. It was estimated that the number of passengers at the
airport is growing by 14 per cent annually compared to national air passenger
growth rate of less than four per cent, making it one of the busiest airports in the
country.
Therefore, a site in Attock district was selected as the site for the construction of a
new airport just a few kilometers from the Islamabad interchange
on M1/M2 motorways. However the project couldn't be started and was repeatedly
postponed till 2005. The plan to construct a new airport was announced on 7
January 2005 by Civil Aviation Authority. The foundation stone of the project was
laid by former President Pervez Musharraf and Prime MinisterShaukat Aziz on 7 April
2007. In 2011 Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani announced that a new airport will
be constructed in the territory of Islamabad naming it the International Rawal
Airport. The design for that airport was ready and the initial construction was
started but however was stopped due to the suspension of the designated Prime
Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. After taking seat Nawaz Sharif has announced that the
work on Rawal Airport will be started again in 2016 and will be fully functional till
the end of his 5-year government.
The CAA asked a team of British architects to design the new airport. The airport is
the first-ever green-field airport in Pakistan and would be built at a cost of $300
million. CAA signed an agreement with Louis Berger Group of USA in association
with Pakistani consulting firm GT AASR, to undertake project management services.
It is anticipated that the new facility will become operational by December 2016.
[1]
This airport will be the largest and most modern in Pakistan upon completion.
Project details[edit]

It is a joint project of Capital Development Authority (CDA), National Highway Authority (NHA) and
the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and designed by French company Aroports de Paris Ingenierie
(ADPi) and CPG Corporation of Singapore. It is being built on more than 3200 acres of land and
consists of a passenger terminal building, 2 runways (28L/10R, 28R/10L), taxiways, apron and
parking bays for wide body aircraft. There will also be a cargo terminal, air traffic control complex,
fuel farm, as well as a fire, crash and rescue facility. It would be equipped to handle all types of
aircraft including the new generation aircraft such as the Airbus A380. The construction site of the
airport is near the Rawalpindi-Fateh Jang Road near Fateh Jang, some 20 km from Zero
Point, Islamabad and 23 km from Saddar, Rawalpindi.[2] The airport is being developed to be at par
with international standards to serve as major hub for all aviation activities in Pakistan.
The airport will have a 180,000m modular terminal building which will initially be able to handle 9
million passengers and 80,000 metric tonnes cargo per annum. The numbers are expected to reach
15 million passengers by 2019 and increase to 25 million passengers by 2024. [3] Being a new airport,
a significant portion of the land has been earmarked for commercial purposes such as duty-free
shops, hotel and convention centre, air malls, business centre, food courts, leisure and recreational
facilities.
The naming of the airport has been controversial due to political considerations. The CAA
announced its intention to name the airport Gandhara International Airport after the ancient Buddhist
kingdom of Gandhara.[4] The project was worked out through three levels: concept designing, primary
and final designing

New Islamabad International Airport will be the first Greenfield airport ever constructed in Pakistan and
will be named after the assassinated ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (decided in June 2008 by current
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani).
The project was announced in January 2005 after a ten-year delay due to political changes in the country
and construction began in April 2007, when funding became available.

"The new airport will eventually replace the overloaded

Islamabad International Airport at Chaklala."
The new airport will eventually replace the overloaded Islamabad International Airport at Chaklala,
providing better access for the northern areas, north-west frontier province, federally administered tribal
areas, Azzad Jammu, Potohar and Kashmir.
The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) is the controlling body for the $400m (PKR37bn) project,
which is likely to see the airport opening for operations in 2014.

The new 3,600-acre (13km) airport site is situated on a plot of land acquired by the PCAA in the 1980s at
Pind Ranjah near Fateh Jang (an additional 400 acres have been acquired to build the two runways).
The airport will be 20km from the centre of Islamabad and 23km from Rawalpindi, being well served by an
excellent highway infrastructure.
The airport will be constructed in two phases. Phase one of the project, which included site preparation
and other earth works, was completed in April 2008. About 20% of air side infrastructure work has been
completed.

"The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) is the

controlling body for the $400m (PKR37bn) project."
Ground is being levelled for the terminal building and allied facilities. The controlling body Civil Aviation
Authority has apportioned contracts worth PKR14.224bn ($178.6m) for construction activities under the
self-financed project. Of these, PKR11.825bn was allocated for air side infrastructure work.
Phase two of the project is underway. It will see car parking for 2,000 vehicles, a covered plaza area for
200 cars, a control tower, maintenance hangar, a 15-gate terminal with ten remote gates, 42 immigration
counters, nine baggage claim carousels, 12 X-ray machines and also office and administration facilities.
There will also be a hotel, convention centre, duty-free shops, air side mall, business centre, food court,
leisure facilities and banks at the new terminal. In March 2012, the first test flight to the airport was carried
out to test the runways. The airport's new terminal is expected to be operational by 2013.

General facilities at New Islamabad International Airport

The airport will have a 180,000m modular terminal building which will initially be able to handle nine
million passengers each year. The numbers are expected to reach 15 million by 2019 and increase to 25
million by 2024.
There will be two 4,000ft-long category-F runways (for largest heaviest aircraft) although initially only one
will be used for operations and the other will be retained as an emergency runway.
There will also be a cargo complex capable of handling 80,000t a year, four rapid-exit taxiways, a special
parking area for hijacked aircraft, apron parking sufficient for the contact stands, underground cable
network, parking for ground handling vehicles, secure cargo areas and major airport road infrastructure.

Contractors involved with Pakistan's airport development

The airport infrastructure was designed by ADPI (Aroports de Paris ingnierie) along with Acorp,
Mushtaq and Bilal Mahboob Associates. The terminal building was designed by CPG Corporation of
Singapore in a joint venture with National Engineering Services Pakistan (design started in March 2006).
The project management consultants for the new airport are Louis Berger Group of the US along with
ECIL (Engineering Consultants International) of Pakistan.
The first phase of the construction (air side infrastructure including runways) is being undertaken over a
24-month contract for PKR11.8bn by Lagan Construction of the Republic of Ireland (60% of the work) and
their local partners Husnain Cotex (40% of the work). Husnain Cotex and IKAN have also formed a joint

venture to carry out the preliminary works at the airport site including earthworks and construction of
embankments for the runway and main access road to the site.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would spend Rs 690 million this year for
development of sustainable rainwater resources, completion of underconstruction main meteorological office and establishment of accommodation
for personnel of the Airport Security Force (ASF) at New Islamabad
International Airport (NIIA).
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had approved for development
of sustainable rain water resources and construction of Ramma dam in March to
meet water requirements of the new airport with an estimated cost of Rs 1,657
million, out of which Rs 684.74 million have already been spent.
However, an additional amount of Rs 271.41 million have been allocated under
the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2015-16 for completion of
this project, according to a budgetary document released by the government.
According to CAA official sources, the dam is being constructed in coordination
with Small Dams Organisation, Islamabad. Similarly, another amount of Rs
18.58 million has been allocated under the PSDP 2015-16 for establishment of
Main Meteorological Office at the airport.
The estimated cost of this project is Rs 31 million, out of which Rs 12.38 have
already been spent. The government has also earmarked Rs 400 million for
construction of accommodation barracks for the ASF personnel. Under the
orders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a power plant would be installed to
ensure regular electricity to the airport, which would cater the needs of 15
million passengers in a year.
The CAA, responsible for execution of the airport, has also decided for
provisioning of security on complete perimeter fencing by installing perimeter
intrusion detection system in line with the international standards at the airport.
For this purpose, a consultant is being engaged to conduct complete survey of
the area, measuring 18.4 kilometres, and prepare an initial report.

This airport would be the first green field airport of Pakistan with the facility to
cater the largest commercial aircraft presently operating worldwide.
The airport would have 15 boarding bridges and would be able to handle
400,000 metric tonnes of cargo. The government has ordered the installation of
latest baggage handling system at the airport.
The groundbreaking of the project was performed in April 2007 and it was
supposed to be completed within 30 months. Initially the cost of the project was
estimated to be Rs37 billion. Later, PC-I of the project was revised in March
2012 at a cost of Rs 66 billion.
The CAA had once again revised its expenditures, putting them at Rs 95 billion
while the anticipated completion date of the project was October 2016.