By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director general have taken notice of the damage inflicted by recent rainfall on Islamabad International Airport.
The minister and the top CAA official have summoned a comprehensive report from officials concerned on the incident.
According to Senior Joint Secretary of the Aviation Division Abdul Sattar Khokhar, the CAA director general sought a report on the incident with directives for fixing the damaged ceiling within three days’ time.
He also instructed the project manager and the airport manager to furnish their reports in this regard.
The aviation minister will visit the airport tomorrow to review the situation.
A spokesperson for the Aviation Division said the incident occurred on the morning of Aug 14 when 56 millimetres of rain lashed the airport, due to which a major portion of the false ceiling of its international departure and domestic arrival lounges as well as CIP lounge collapsed under the burden of rainwater accumulating on ceiling panels.
Earlier, a portion of the false ceiling of Islamabad International Airport’s (IIA) international and domestic departure lounges collapsed during recent rainfall in the capital. A video clip showing panels of the false ceiling coming off and falling to the ground has been doing rounds on social media. Rainwater began dripping from the ceiling after the panels came down.
The damage the rainfall inflicted on the airport was reported two days back. There were no reports of injuries in the incident. The collapse of ceiling panels during rain lays bare poor quality of construction work on the airport.
On June 23, strong winds in the capital city had inflicted damage to the New Islamabad International Airport. A portion of the airport ceiling along with a glass door of the newly built state of the art airport fell to the ground, exposing weak built quality.
Furthermore, many glass windows at the airport also got broken and the boarding bridge designated to take passengers to their respective airplanes also suffered damage. Boarding brige 6’s safety wall was broken by the gust rendering it unusable.
