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
RE:
@ for God’s sake, no, please no, sialkot should’nt look
like Europe, why do you have to “become” flipping
Europeans ?
Can you imagine Sialkotans roaming around in Bikinis,
strings, monos etc. and speaking pinglish ??
This is a positive thing: the development of SIA.
Time to buy land in Sialkot? Invest In Sialkot? If you have money and brain move to Sialkot start Imprt and Export business. Sialkot can leave Taiwan and Korea behind. Open business and run it with fairness. Have Buses bringing workers from villages and returning them home.
Problem with Sialkot has been Once they get huge order they can not finish is on time. This is a good problem to have but Some brain and Big Money holders need to be there. Most of the Sialkoti Business people are happy if they are making 10 million a year , They do not try to go beyond that.
This is why they are behind Taiwan and Korea. They need to keep on reinvesting in tools and technology.
Example I grew up in Sialkot. I saw in my own streets wood tennis manufacturing. The minut Korea introduced metal tennises , In Sialkot tennis manufacturers closed doors.
Go Sialkot make Pakistan Proud.
Proud to be Sialkotia.
Allah Bless Pakistan
Sialkot is the rich country in Pakistan. Its about time business community in Sialkot doing things like this. Sialkot should be turned into little Europe. Sialkot will pay a great role once Jummu Kashmir Border opens from Sialkot. Sialkot will be a town to catch bus for Kashmir after spending a night in Sialkot.
Thats why its very Important Pakistan and India has the border like USA and Canada.
aslam o alaikum to all muslims and sialkot nation….i want to congratulate them on this huge project.
main salam karta hun un ko jinn k dimagh main iss ka tasawar aaya.yaqeenan hamain sialkot ka citizen honey per proud hay.
thankx mian mohammad riaz sahib.