China offers help to upgrade HSIA

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UNB, Dhaka :
As the government has decided to construct the third terminal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), China has offered its assistance for its expansion and modernisation works.
China Airport Construction Group Corporation (CACC), a 100 percent state-owned corporation of China, sent a letter on May 20 to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with a proposal for the construction of the third terminal, domestic terminal, VVIP complex and Cargo Village at HSIA.
In the letter, the copy of which is obtained by UNB, CACC General Manager Liu Yong said, “We believe that with our technical ability and long experience in the field of airport construction, we would be able to complete a new modern airport of international standard (as per ICAO standard) in three years’ time from the start of the construction, as planned by your government.”
The Chinese official in the letter said out of the estimated project investment cost of around $ 1.3 billion, depending on the approval of the final design, with the construction period of three years, the project fund may use Chinese soft loans from the bank in China.
The businesses of CACC, which has constructed some 160 international and domestic airports all over the world in past 61 years, include the turn-key projects, project management, engineering, investigation, consultation, design, supervision, construction and research.
Earlier on May 13, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the authorities concerned to go ahead for constructing the third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) and complete the work in a faster pace to handle growing number of passengers.
Officials at the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism said the annual passenger handling capacity of the HSIA is about eight millions. In the current fiscal year, 6.7 million passengers used the airport which is increasing at the rate of 9.5 percent.
According to the officials, the number of passengers at the airport would cross eight millions in 2018. So, there will be a need for constructing a new terminal in 2019 for handing the growing passengers.
They said, though the annual cargo handling capacity of the airport is two lakh tonnes, presently 2.37 lakh tonnes of cargo are transported through the airport, which means it is handling 18 percent more cargo than the present capacity.
A joint consulting firm comprising, Yushin of Korea, CPG of Singpapore and DDC of Bangladesh has been appointed to formulate a master plan for constructing necessary infrastructures to fulfil the demand of growing passengers and cargoes. The firm conducted the feasibility study and a new master plan for the airport expansion project for 10 months. As per the master plan, a proposal has been made to complete the airport expansion work in two phases. The master plan has proposed constructing all infrastructures excepting the second runway in the first phase. The infrastructures include third terminal, cargo village, VVIP complex and domestic terminal.
The first phase work would start this year and complete in 2019 and Tk 10,700 crore will be needed for completing the just first phase work. In the second phase, a proposal for constructing other infrastructures, including the second runway has been made and the approximate cost of which will be Tk 2,300 crore.
As per the feasibility study, the implementation of the second phase work could be reevaluated by considering the situation on completion of the first phase work.
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