HSIA Terminal 3 project cost goes up by Tk 77.9b

The construction cost of the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, which will be inaugurated on October 7, has increased by Tk 77.88 billion to TK 213.98 billion. The original estimate for the project was Tk 136.1 billion.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing 70 per cent of the fund.

Eighty-nine per cent work of the eye-catching terminal has been completed so far and the rest of the work will be completed by the end of next year.

“We hope that the terminal will be fully functional by December next year,” Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authorities of Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman told a press briefing on Monday.

He said the Prime Minister will inaugurate the terminal on October 7 and it will be a soft opening.

“According to the contract, the soft opening was scheduled to take place in 1,471 days from the beginning of the construction work, but we have been able to do it in just 1,245 days,” he noted.

Mr Mafidur said that with world-class facilities, the third terminal will help meet the objectives of turning Dhaka airport into an aviation hub.

He added that the CAAB has a plan to appoint a foreign company to operate the terminal and provide services to passengers.

“Our aim is to ensure that the standard of the passenger services will be like that of the top-class airports like the Changi Airport of Singapore,” he said adding that companies with such capabilities will be selected for operating the terminal.

He had earlier said that a Japanese company might be awarded the task.

In December 2019, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the project.

Korea’s Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation and Japan’s Mitshubishi and Fujita were  awarded the job for the construction of the third terminal with an area of 542,000 square metres, sufficient for parking 37 planes.

The main terminal building has an area of 230,000 square metres.

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 and a new 63,000 square metre import and export cargo complex.

Annually, around 20 million passengers will be able to use the HSIA following the construction of the third terminal.

Project officials said that once the metro rail is connected with the terminal, cargo movement will increase and unloading will be faster.

The entire process will be automated, officials said.

[email protected]