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Nawaz inaugurates international terminal at Multan airport
MULTAN - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday inaugurated the international terminal at the Multan airport, a state of the art facility to avail direct international flights and to give impetus to trade and business activities for the people of South Punjab.
The prime minister unveiled the plaque to open the upgraded air travelling facility completed at a cost of over Rs 9 billion to help boost export of world’s best aromatic Pakistani mangoes to lucrative foreign markets besides fruits, vegetables textiles, cotton and a variety of other products. During the inauguration ceremony, the prime minister said that the nation should be united on terrorism and progress, emphasising that even if government’s change work on development projects should continue. Work on the international terminal was started during the tenure of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in June 2010. The project was completed in two phases. In the first phase air side facilities including runway taxiway tracks and apron were upgraded with Rs 2.09 billion.
The runway is 10,500 feet - 900 feet overrun on both sides - while width is 150 feet - 25 feet shoulders on each side. The runway can accommodate the requirement of aircraft Boeing 747, 777 and the apron was designed to cater to two wide bodied and 2 narrow bodied aircrafts with an area of 36,356 square metres (sqm). In the second phase the new terminal building and allied facilities were completed with Rs 7.036 billion approved in October 2014. The covered area of the terminal is 30,700 sqm and has composite steel structure with double halls. The international terminal has four bridges for passengers boarding out of whom two were completed while another two were under construction which would be built by May this year.
The new car parking has been constructed to cater about 400 vehicles. Officials said that in and out cargo would be 10,000 metric tonnes per year which may increase by 30,000 metric tonnes per year with the passage of time. Special emphasis has been laid to ensure security in and around the airport. The new airport has the capacity to handle one million passengers per annum as compared to 0.1 million passengers at old airport. Federal Minister for National Food Security Sikandar Bosan, Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali, PM’s Special Assistant on Aviation Shujaat Azeem former prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani besides senior officials attended the ceremony.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk