RM1 billion humanitarian airport, hospital near Ipoh

NST: IPOH: The world's first humanitarian airport-cum-emergency medical care and services terminal costing RM1 billion is to be built at a 400ha site in Bandar Seri Iskandar, 40km from here.
Casa Pasifik Sdn Bhd, the developer and management company of the project, said it had secured money from an overseas humanitarian fund to pay for the construction.
Casa Pasifik chairman Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Hilmi Ismail said he was waiting for the Transport Ministry to give the go-ahead for the project which had been in the planning stage for 11/2 years and would take 38 months to complete.
"The Department of Civil Aviation has confirmed that the application complies with airport standards," he said.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Perak State Development Corporation and Casa Pasifik on March 20 to develop the project.
Hilmi said the Perak government had requested the company to include a clause to build a commercial airport at the same site in the future. "We'll accommodate any proposal to construct facilities for commercial flights as the airport will already be in existence."
The present Sultan Azlan Shah Airport here is under-utilised and cannot be expanded.
The focus of this new project will be on the humanitarian aspect. It will provide urgent and preventive medical care as well as other life-changing medical services to people in the Asia-Pacific region.
The airport will cater for large aircraft and helicopters equipped with medical facilities and surgical suites. It will have a 3,700-metre runway.
The hi-tech specialist hospital at the airport would have 500 beds, with 200 beds under the first phase.
Hilmi said the aircraft would be able to fly to war-torn countries or places where victims were injured due to natural disasters to provide treatment. If the victims need further treatment, they will be flown to the hospital at the airport.
Hilmi said the project would create downstream activities, including a medical training centre and a flying academy.