Our Staff Reporter KARACHI PIA MD Nadeem Khan Yousufzai has inaugurated water purification plant facility at PIA Technical Ground Support Office, Jinnah Terminal for the supply of purified portable water to the PIA aircraft as well as foreign carriers operating at Karachi. Yousufzai appreciated the efforts of PIA Airport Services Department headed by Aijaz Mazhar and directed them to plan and create similar facility at Lahore and Islamabad Airports . MD PIA said that to further cut costs and instead of buying drinking mineral water bottles from outside source the plant may be upgraded to provide bottled mineral drinking water and the plant should function on commercial basis as a profit centre. The fully automated Water Purification Plant designed according to the guidelines of IATA AHM 440 on the standard of portable water supply, was installed in-house by the civil and mechanical engineers of PIA as a cost cutting measure which would help PIA save up to Rs10 million annually. The purified portable water from the plant has also been tested by the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and Aga Khan University Hospital. The raw water passes through five stages of purification ie Sand Filtration, Activated Carbon Filtration, Cartridge Filter Housing, UV Disinfection and Chlorination. The plant automatically backwash and rinse every eight hour of operation and has a capacity of supplying 1,000 gallons of water hourly. The water plant would now be serving purified portable water to the PIA fleet; PIA engineering department besides the water would also be supplied to other ground handling agents and foreign airline for use in aircraft Galley and toilets. On the occasion, MD also visited the recently refurbished Washing Bay Plant of TGS (Technical Ground Support) to automatically wash the PIA ramp vehicles. This plant was non functional for the last many years. Later, MD PIA inspected the RSD Training Institute being built at Jinnah International Airport and is expected to complete by 30th November 2011. The Institute will provide apprenticeship training on self finance basis to develop trained ramp staff. The income generated from this institute will be used to procure latest equipment and technologies for ramp services.