The third terminal of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) will be inaugurated on Saturday next with an aim to offer passengers international-standard services and turning the airport into a regional aviation hub.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to open the terminal being developed at a cost of Tk 213.98 billion.
"It'll be a soft opening," Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman told a press briefing in Dhaka on Monday.
He said the soft opening is taking place by 1245 days from the beginning of the construction work - much ahead of the contracted 1471 days.
"We hope the terminal will be fully functional by December next year," said the CAAB chairman, adding that 89 per cent work has so far been completed and the rest is expected to be done by the end of next year.
The construction cost of the infrastructure has been increased by Tk 77.88 billion from the original estimate of Tk 136.10 billion, officials said. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is financing 70 per cent of the project cost.
Mr Rahman expected the eye-catching terminal with modern facilities to meet the objectives of turning the Dhaka airport into a regional aviation hub.
The CAAB has planned to appoint a foreign company to operate the terminal and provide services to the passengers, he added.
"Our aim is to ensure that the standard of the passenger services will be like that of the top airports like Changi in Singapore," he said, adding that the companies with such capabilities will be picked for operating the terminal.
Earlier, he said that a Japanese company might get the job.
In December 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the project.
The Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation of Korea, and Mitsubishi and Fujita of Japan have been awarded the contract to construct the third terminal.
The terminal will have a space of 542,000 square metres, sufficient to park 37 planes, while the main terminal building has an area of 230,000 square metres.
It will have 115 check-in counters, 64 departure and 64 arrival immigration desks, 27 baggage scanning machines, 40 scanning machines, 12 boarding bridges, 16 carousels and 11 body scanners.
There will also be a new car parking facility for 1,230 vehicles, a new 63,000 square metres import and export cargo complex.
Project officials said that as the metro rail will be connected to the terminal, cargo movement will increase and the unloading will be faster. The entire process will be automated, they added.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com