PM inaugurates construction of HSIA 3rd terminal today

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the construction work of the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital today.

‘We have taken all out preparations to hold the ground-breaking ceremony …. honourable prime minister is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the work at 10:30am tomorrow,’ state minister for civil aviation and tourism M Mahbub Ali told newsmen at a press briefing at HSIA on Friday.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is also scheduled to inaugurate Biman’s two new dreamliners aircraft Boeing 787-9 named Sonar Tori and Achin Pakhi as well as a new mobile app of the national flag carrier.

The state minister said Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport will be one of the best airports in the region after the construction of its third terminal at the cost of Tk 21,300 crore. The government will provide Tk 5,000 crore of the cost and the rest would be funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

‘After the construction of the third terminal, the airport will be the most modern airport in the region. 12 million additional passengers will be benefited annually after the construction of this terminal,’ Mahbub said.

Mitsubishi and Fujita of Japan and Samsung of Korea were awarded to construct the 3rd terminal under a consortium, Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh official sources said.

Civil aviation and tourism secretary Md Mohibul Haque and CAAB chairman Air Vice-Marshal M Mofidur Rahman also spoke at the press briefing.

Haque said all operational works of the new terminal will be possible to monitor centrally from a single control room.

The senior secretary said the government will float an open tender to select an efficient company for ‘ground handling’ task of the new terminal.

The project with an estimated cost of Tk 13,610.47 crore got the nod of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on October 24, 2017.

However, the cost of the project enhanced subsequently due to expansion of some of the project works, including setting up of a separate cargo house, official sources said.

‘The cost increased as we amplified volume of work that includes separation of export and import cargo houses and construction of new VVIP terminal,’ Haque told the news agency on Thursday.

The secretary said additional work as well as the extra cost were planed and calculated as per consultation of JICA’s fact finding mission along with CAAB’s Japan based consultant firm- the Nippon Koi.

‘The project’s additional fund was approved by the ECNEC on December 10 last’, Haque said.

The new international passenger terminal building is set to have a floor area of roughly 22.5 lakh square feet whereas the exiting two terminals of the airport have space of around 10 lakh square feet together.

The airport’s expansion is set to increase the airport’s annual passenger handling capacity from the current eight millions to approximately 20 million, and the cargo capacity from 200,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net