The soft opening of the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) could not ensure completion of the rest 10-percent physical work even after the lapse of a year.
Although the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) recorded 98.6-percent progress till September, officials said it may take at least four more months to complete the remaining 1.4-percent work.
Progress was recorded 90 per cent at the time of soft opening by ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government on 07 October 2023.
The CAAB organised the soft opening of the terminal to facilitate the Sheikh Hasina-led government's motive to show development success before the national election though no such operational activities then started.
After the terminal operational, annual passenger handling capacity of the HSIA will be increased 12 million passengers.
Currently, the airport's two terminals handle 8.0 million passengers per year by operating 120 to 130 flights of more than 30 airlines a day.
Another source said starting the new terminal functional for flight operation and passengers' movement with all kind of facilities, including immigration and luggage handling, will not be possible by next year.
When asked, CAAB Chairman Monjurul Karim Bhuiyan said although one percent work is only left for completion of the physical work, fine tuning work needs more time than high percentage physical work.
"It may seem one per cent work is very insignificant. But it may need time due to final integration of all kinds of finishing work," he told the FE over phone.
According to the CAAB, the new interim government is yet to decide about awarding the operation and maintenance work of the 3rd terminal to any party though the ousted Sheikh Hasina government in principle agreed to award the work to a Japanese consortium of six companies under public-private partnership.
The CAAB also accepted its initial conceptual plan last year. But the Bangladesh Biman Airlines has also been lobbying to get the work as it has been carrying ground handling of the existing terminals.
Sources, however, said the CAAB and the BBA may start the operation after completion of physical work till further decision on the O and M is taken.
Whatever the decision would be, an official preferring not to be named said full function of the 3rd terminal will take time to be necessary to set up machinery and equipments by different agencies, complete time of dry run and training of newly recruited people.
The construction work of the 3rd terminal began in December 2019 at a cost of Tk 213.98 billion with the financial support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
A consortium of Mitsubishi, Fujita of Japan and Samsung of Korea has been constructing the work.
smunima@yahoo.com
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