A small yet significant news caught my attention the other day. On November 30, 2007, Sialkot International Airport got its inaugural commercial flight. Pakistan thus adds one more feather in its infrastructure development. The IATA designation of this airport is SKT. It is now the 45th public airport/air strip in Pakistan. There was an inaugural Boeing 737, PIA flight from Karachi the same day, which landed at Sialkot International Airport with 118 passengers. Currently the only flights available to and from Sialkot are from Karachi but very soon Sialkot will get direct overseas flights.
Sialkot International Airport has been built by the local business community on a “self-help basis†at a cost of US $33 million. Sialkot is very fortunate in a sense that local business community plays a vital role in its development. To build, own and operate this airport a company was established in 2001. It is called the Sialkot International Airport Limited (SIAL).
SIAL is a company with 223 directors, each of which has invested Rs 5m of capital in the project as the primary investment. Each of the directors was invited to take part in the project because of their previous experience of running sizeable and successful enterprises.
In order to construct the new airport SIAL contracted NESPAK to develop the master plan and after much deliberation and consultation over two years a fully integrated plan was finalised and approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Sialkot International Airport is located 14 km west of Sialkot and is spread over an area of 1050 acres. It also has the longest commercial runway in Pakistan. The runway length is 3.6 km and width is 45m with 7.5m wide shoulders on either side. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has graded this runway as 4E.
The Link Taxiway is 263-meter long, 23-meter wide with 10.5-meter shoulders. The apron covers an area of 45000 sq meters and the airport can nose-in park four Boeing 747s simultaneously.
The construction of the airport was approved in 2001, the construction work started in January 2003 and on March 26, 2005 the first ever plane landed here.
Following image shows convenient road distances from different cities which are projected to benefit from Sialkot International Airport.
10 km west of the airport flows river Chenab and currently there is a bridge called Shahbazpur Bridge under construction there. Once completed, the bridge will reduce the distance between the cities located at either side of the river. It will provide an easy access to the whole region including Sialkot International Airport, Sambrial Dry Port, Export Processing Zone Sialkot and the industries of Sialkot. It will help the airport to become a gateway for the people of Gujrat, Kharian, Lalamusa, Jhelum and Azad Kashmir. The work on this bridge started in 2005 and is expected to be ready in 2008.
Once the overseas flights start from Sialkot, it will become Pakistan’s 9th International airport. Current International Airports of Pakistan are:
1. Jinnah International Airport Karachi (KHI),
2. Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore (LHE),
3. Islamabad International Airport (ISB),
4. Peshawar International Airport (PEW),
5. Quetta International Airport (QET),
6. Shaikh Zayed International Airport Rahimyar Khan (RYK),
7. Gwadar International Airport (GWD), and
8. Turbat International Airport (TUK).
References:
1. Sialkot International Airport Limited (SIAL)
2. NESPAK
What is it about sialkot?……A ancient hindu city for almost a millenia, which became a central greek city for about half a millenia and then a sufi city, an Islamic city, for more than a millenia, with many spiritual leaders with so many tales of wonderment and amzement regarding hindu rajas, greek governors, muslim saints and warriors……
But no doubt the Sialkotis-Silkotiay- are so enterprising, (the baby business step, for lack of a better word, started with ONE british officer trying to get his tennis racket restrung by ONE local). Without much, if any govt. support they singlehandedly took the sports manufacturing industry to a great export and job producing industry, then came the surgical goods industry which is very well developed again without any govt. support or incentives except the customery nominal export rebate, which stands at less than 2% now. Not to mention leather goods industry……….highly enterprising. They formed very lucrative partnerships with adidas, nike, reebok, again with out any govt. ministry intervention and dealt with child labour issues, although they still prevail. The rest of the textile industry of punjab and sindh has been highly subsidised with heavy govt. investment but it is still flailing and has failed to capitalise on the world trends and emerging realities…..
Sialkot has the highest per capita income in pakistan and is pakistan richest city…some say it has something to do with a very respected, highly spiritual sufi saint who rests in sialkot. His grave is there.
Now i read of this airport, again without much govt. support or initiative…these guys should hold seminars about how to get things done….The only negative from the images i see on the web…the airport has no aesthetics, no architectural beauty, just form and function. but nevertheless………3 cheers for sialkot..hip hip…hip hip….hip hip…..
And before i end this comment….Iqbal, our beloved, spiritual Allama, was born there and by the way so was I.
This airport is a good example of market driven forces and involved citizenry with self and community benifits.
@Sialkot airport,
without being pessimist,
Hawai-addah jo Tajiron nay hay banwaya
aur na-umeedon say mukhatib hokar,
Rafay, inn say baeed hay, ne hi umeed hamein
Baich dein ranway kisi ko, aur addah tumhein
ATP Friends,
Good news about Muneer A Malik saab whose health is improving MASHALLAH. Please read my post on his awful state before at http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
And then read the report in The News and say a prayer of thanks, its here:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=33358
Feimanallah
Wasim
Good to see the private sector taking initiative with a major project. Sadly, most comments above mine are trying to find a negative here. Thankfully, no such negativism from the Sialkoti businessmen.
There are just so many positives here. It will take load off of Lahore and Islamabad. It is serving a huge population and manufacturing base. It says something about the optimism of the business community to make that investment in infrastructure. The government’s job is to create and sustain an atmosphere for individual and collective improvement. If nothing else, it seems the project went thru red tape speedily. So kudos to the chaudhrys. They have been good for Punjab. The commercial success of this venture should also allow for the privatization of current airports. The public sector should not be in the business of running businesses.