Action ordered against contractor for Islamabad Airport bridge collapse

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has ordered immediate action into the matter of boarding bridge that collapsed at Islamabad International Airport, ARY News reported on Saturday.

CAA had constituted the committee to conduct the inquiry into the collapse of a boarding bridge of Islamabad International Airport (IIAP) in October this year.

CAA Director General Hassan Baig directed to take prompt action as per contract agreement against the contractor of the boarding bridge M/s Adelte and rebuild the collapsed bridge without any cost to CAA.

He also issued directives to take strict disciplinary action against the CAA personnel responsible for this incident.

The new Islamabad airport was inaugurated on May 1 this year, after months of delay. The new airport is located 30km away from central Islamabad, and its construction work had started in April 2007.

The airport has a modular design which enables it to handle nine million passengers and 50,000 metric tons of cargo initially.

The “Y” shaped new airport spreads over 19 square kilometers with 15 jetties (passenger boarding bridges), including facilities to accommodate two double-deck A380, the world’s largest airplane, 15 remote bays and seven remote bays for small aircraft such as ATRs. It will be the biggest international airport in the country in terms of landing and passenger handling facilities. For the 15 bays, the same number of lounges have been built to avoid mixing of passengers. The new airport has two runways each 3.5 km long.

It has a passenger friendly terminal, two runways, three taxiways and a cargo apron which can accommodate large and small aircrafts.