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A posh new terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport opens today (Saturday) with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flagging off the inaugural trial flight.
This imposing terminal will immensely help in fulfilling the aim of turning HSIA into a regional aviation hub, stakeholders said about the near-complete multibillion-taka air-traffic facility.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) chairman Air Vice-Marshal M Mafidur Rahman says with completion of 90 per cent of project works this will be a "soft opening".
The inaugural ceremony will be crowned with a trial flight of national flag-carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines from the new terminal.
Officials say over Tk 213 billion is spent for the terminal. The cost has escalated by Tk 77.88 billion to Tk 213.98 billion. The original estimate was Tk 136.10 billion.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing 70 per cent of the funds for the terminal -- one of a number of megaprojects taken up in Bangladesh largely with foreign financing.
Officials have said 90-percent works of the eye-catching terminal are completed so far and the rest will be done by the end of next year.
"We hope that the terminal will be fully functional by December next year," the CAAB chairman, Air Vice-Marshal Mafidur Rahman, told a press briefing last week.
"According to the contract the soft opening was scheduled to take place in 1471 days from the beginning of the construction but we have been able to do that in 1245 days," he informed the press.
He said with international facilities the third terminal would help meet the objectives of turning the Dhaka airport an aviation hub.
He also mentioned that the CAAB has a plan to appoint a foreign company to operate the terminal and provide customer services to the passengers.
"Our aim is to ensure that standards of the passenger services will be like that of the top-class airports like Changi Airport of Singapore," he said, adding that companies having such capabilities will be picked for operating the terminal.
Earlier, he had informed that a Japanese company might be awarded the task.
In December 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the project.
Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation of Korea and Mitsubishi and Fujita of Japan were awarded the job of construction of the third HSIA terminal, having a space of 542,000 square meters, sufficient for the parking of 37 planes.
The main terminal building has an area of 230,000 square meters.
The terminal 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-metre import-and export-cargo complex.
Around 20 million passengers will be able to use the HSIA following the construction of the third terminal.
Project officials say as metro rail will be connected with the terminal, cargo movement will increase and unloading will get faster.
"The entire process will be automated," says one official to define it as a state-of-the-art aviation facility.