A Japanese company is interested in developing a multimodal transport hub at airport rail station on condition that it operates the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Officials said Mitsubishi Corporation has proposed the Public-Private Partnership Authority to invest in the project of Bangladesh Railway as it has been working on the terminal as a consortium member.
It ushers a ray of hope for the rail authorities as another Japanese company has failed to work on the multimodal transport hub (MMTH) project, they said.
But they feared that the new proposal might create new problems in the implementation of the estimated $200-million project.
Mitsubishi is likely to place its concept plan in the next Bangladesh-Japan joint platform meeting on February 24, the officials mentioned.
Along with Fujita of Japan and Samsung of Korea, Mitsubishi was awarded the third terminal construction work in December 2019.
Despite lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, sources said, progress in the terminal work was recorded good.
The MMTH was one of the potential PPP projects in the second platform meeting in 2018.
Sujitsu Company of Japan was selected by the Japanese ministry of land, infrastructure and tourism for the project forming a sub-working group.
But it failed to prepare a master plan in what it said the land was not enough to develop the transport hub.
Later, the ministry formed another sub-working group with Mitsubishi as the next potential investor for the project.
BR and PPPA officials said these issues were discussed in a meeting with the prime minister's office with its principle secretary in the chair on December 14.
They said the Japanese firm has a plan to link the terminal with the airport station through a tunnel.
"But the problem is the MMTH and the third terminal's operation and management are the projects of two different agencies which cannot be put together under PPP," said an official seeking anonymity.
They hope to get a solution from the design of the Japanese company in the next platform meeting.
The PPPA included the MMTH project after a cabinet committee on economic affairs approved it on October 17 in 2018.
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