Anisul Islam Noor :
The test operation of ground station of Bangabandhu-1 satellite is set to start in September as 88 percent works have already been completed, officials at the Ministry of Posts Telecommunications and Information Technology said.
While talking to this reporter at her office on Wednesday, State Minister Tarana Halim was upbeat on major breakthrough in telecommunication and information communication technology on ICT -based activities after the launch of the satellite.
Following the launch, the government will go for setting up two more satellites, Bangabandhu-2 and Bangabandhu-3.
“We already visited the ground station of Bangabandhu-1 satellite in Gazipur to supervise the progress and I am hopeful of its commercial launch by April next, which was earlier scheduled to be launched by next June,” the minister said.
There will be two ground stations for operating Bangabandhu-1 satellite. One is scheduled to be set up at Talibabad in Gazipur and the other in Rangamati’s Bethbunia.
Taran said the ground stations will start holding test runs from October.
The construction of Bangladesh’s first satellite is expected to complete in November. The launch, however, depends on different factors such as weather and fixing the schedule from the US.
The government had earlier planned to launch the project in December from Florida.
French firm Thales Alenia Space is manufacturing the satellite for $248 million (Tk 1,959 crore) under an agreement signed with Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in November 2015.
The most sophisticated technological project in Bangladesh is costing around Tk 2,967.95 crore. It might come down by a few hundred crore taka, said Tarana in reply to a question.
Tarana said local and foreign companies were being contacted for sales of half of the satellite’s capacity on connectivity.
There have been positive responses from Indonesia and some local companies, said project officials. The Cabinet already okayed a proposal for forming a public limited company to look after the satellite’s business for the next three years as a local partner of Thales Alenia Space.
