Efforts on to outsource three major airports, NA told

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif admitted in the National Assembly on Monday that the government was making efforts to outsource three major airports in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.

In a written reply to a question of Dr Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto, Khawaja Muhammad, who also holds the portfolio of Minister for Aviation, told the House in the in a written reply that the major reasons for outsourcing these airports was to improve the quality of service for passengers, public and stakeholders.

He told the House that the outsourcing of Islamabad International Airport had been advertised and according to the project scope, the passenger terminal building, its car parking, cargo apron and a few land parcels were part of the facilities that would be outsourced whereas the remaining facilities such as the airside infrastructure, runways, taxiways, navigational services, surveillance facilities such as radars, air traffic control services, rescue and firefighting services, etc. shall remain with the CAA.

The House was told that on successful outsourcing, the facilities failing within the scope of outsourcing will be required to be operated, maintained and managed by the outsourcing company.

“The assets will remain a property of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority but would be used for the duration of the outsourcing arrangements,” the House was told in a written reply. The Public Private Partnership Authority (P3A) Act 2017 is being strictly followed while proceeding forward for outsourcing of airports.

As a first step, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) was selected inaccordance with the provisions of P3A Act and its Regulations, as Transaction Advisor for outsourcing of airports.

The RFP document, including all the bidding documents, has been advertised for international competitive bidding in accordance with the PPRA Rules, which is being followed by P3A as well.

The federal government has been endeavoring to outsource the airports since 2016, for which a detailed global research has been carried out. The outsourcing of airports is a best practice being adopted around the globe to improve public service delivery and better revenue stream.

As per the project scope and the transaction structure approved by the federal government/Ecnec, the revenues of Islamabad International Airport (IIAP) for the last three financial years are as follows.

Total revenues at the IIAP for the last three financial years are Rs6.688 billion for 2020-21, Rs12.328 billion for 2021-22 and Rs16.462 billion for 2022-23, respectively. The IFC has been selected as transaction advisor for outsourcing of airports.

The IFC developed the transaction structure, project scope and prepared the RFP, including the draft concession agreement and the bidding documents, which were approved from the relevant competent forums.

Open bidding process in accordance with the PPRA Rules has been adopted to select the most suitable company for outsourcing of airports and the last date for submission of the bids is 15th September, 2024.

Answering another question, Asif said the New Gwadar International Airport project was substantially completed and operationalization of the new airport was expected by the end of the current year after formal handovers and trials.

He added the New General Aviation Aerodrome near Muridke was substantially completed and will be operational by the end of next month. In response to a supplementary question by Khursheed Ahmed Junejo, the defense minister said the flights from some of our airports were currently closed, but the staff was there.

In response to Nighat Shakeel’s question, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said two names were proposed during the construction of Islamabad Airport out of which one was Gandhara International Airport, but the CAA named it as Islamabad International Airport.

“There is no summary regarding renaming of Islamabad Airport,” he said. Former Prime Minister and Former Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said when the airport was being constructed, this House had passed a resolution to name it as Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

Replying to another question, the National Assembly was informed that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had worked out various initiatives to increase the public accessibility to the internet.

Responding to a question during the question hour in the House, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Nazeer Tarar said there were some issues in the connectivity problem due to some technical defects in the main supply lines. However, the consumers would witness visible improvement in connectivity in next five days, he added.

The minister said the PTA had allowed six gigahertz spectrum band for unlicensed operation for local area radio network. The minister further said with unlocking at this band, Pakistan had become the 10th country in Asia Pacific to embrace six gigahertz for WIFI.

He said currently, only sixty countries worldwide had unlocked six gigahertz for RLAN WIFI services.