20 July 2004
DUBAI - Overseas Pakistanis and other investors in the UAE are being invited to invest in the first private sector airport under construction in Sialkot, the second largest industrial city of Pakistan after Karachi.
A four member team led by Mian Mohammad Riaz, chairman of Sialkot International Airport Ltd (SIAL), is currently on a visit to the UAE.
Yesterday, Riaz addressed a meeting of the Pakistan Business Council at its hall at the Pakistan Sports and Recreation Club in Dubai. Today, they planned to meet individual investors, and tomorrow, the team will hold talks with Air Arabia on its invitation in Sharjah.
The airline has shown interest in making Sialkot Airport its hub for its cargo and passenger operations in Pakistan. Riaz said that SIAL has 225 directors, each of them has invested Rs5 million in the airport project which cost Rs2 billion ($35 million). Some of the directors are residing in the UAE. The new investors will have to pay a similar amount to become director of SIAL.
Riaz said that the project would have cost much more it was implemented in the public (government) sector. He said that the runway of the airport would be ready in December this year so that cargo operations could start. Passenger operations are planned to be started in the third quarter of 2005.
Riaz said that the buildings of the airport were under construction and the cargo handling building will be ready earlier. He said that the airport was located in the centre of the golden triangle of Sialkot, Gujarat and Gujranwala.
He said that at present 50 tonnes of cargo are exported from Sialkot and 1,200 passengers travel from the city. The airport's coming into
operation will increase exports which at present are valued at $700 million, highest after Karachi.
BY M. A. QUDOOS
© Khaleej Times 2004
