Aviation Minister inspects rainwater damage at Islamabad airport

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan visited the Islamabad International Airport to inspect damage by rainwater which occurred on 14th August.

The Aviation Minister accompanied by senior officials of the Aviation Division was briefed by Project Director and Additional Director responsible for the maintenance of the building.

The minister was apprised that the roof of the terminal building is made up of ABR sheet which has a total length of 4,000 metres of water channels. The rooftop drainage system has the capacity to safely dispose of rainwater up to 150mm per hour. The rainwater is disposed off through an advanced siphonic system that sucks water from the rain channels at high speed before disposal.

The minister was informed that apparently one of the siphonic pumps malfunctioned due to which one of the rain channels was flooded and the water fell down on to level 3 in the international and domestic departure areas. The excess water caused a large number of false ceiling pieces to fall down.

Regarding minor seepage in the roof, the aviation minister directed the concerned officers to immediately rectify the problem and submit a report in this regard.

Earlier, a video on social media showed portions of Islamabad International Airport’s ceiling crashing to the ground due to the recent rains with people being forced to walk around to avoid it. An inquiry into the alleged faulty construction of the airport has been going on for the past two years as rainwater has repeatedly entered the airport on earlier occasions as well.

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) said its director-general has taken cognizance of the damage caused by the rain. “DG CAA has issued directions for a comprehensive report along with a permanent solution within three days,” it said on Twitter.

“According to Airport Manager and his maintenance staff, heavy leakage occurred due to torrential rain resulted in overflowing of drains at rooftop of the passenger terminal building,” it added.

The state airport authority mentioned that there were “multiple solutions under consideration, including adding more water pipes for quick flushing of rainwater into multiple drains or changing the entire drainage design over the rooftop”.