bdnews24.com :
Uncertainty looms over the construction of a third terminal at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka due to lack of fund for the project.
Lenders and aid agencies, which had previously shown interest to invest in the project, now appeared to be getting cold feet. Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon said talks are on with some Chinese companies to implement the project. But, he too could not spell out anything about funding.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said they approved the ‘master plan’ and forwarded it to the planning ministry. The ministry will decide about the finance, according to CAAB.
In May this year, the detailed proposal for expanding the Dhaka airport, which includes building a third terminal, another runway and other infrastructural developments, was forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The proposal says the airport now has the capacity to handle around eight million passengers annually. But in the first five months of 2015 it handled 6.7 million passengers.
With a 9.5% yearly increase in passenger volume, the limit is expected to be crossed in 2018. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told officials to implement the project on a priority basis. But the process has been stalled as neither JICA, the South Korean
government nor the Kuwait Fund is agreeing to finance the project.
A civil aviation ministry’s August 5 report says the Japanese government or Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) did not respond to the Economic Relations Division’s (ERD) letter on funding this project.
Meanwhile, an ERD report says that the civil aviation ministry has been asked to initiate measures to arrange funds from the Chinese government.
Uncertainty looms over the construction of a third terminal at the Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka due to lack of fund for the project.
Lenders and aid agencies, which had previously shown interest to invest in the project, now appeared to be getting cold feet. Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon said talks are on with some Chinese companies to implement the project. But, he too could not spell out anything about funding.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said they approved the ‘master plan’ and forwarded it to the planning ministry. The ministry will decide about the finance, according to CAAB.
In May this year, the detailed proposal for expanding the Dhaka airport, which includes building a third terminal, another runway and other infrastructural developments, was forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The proposal says the airport now has the capacity to handle around eight million passengers annually. But in the first five months of 2015 it handled 6.7 million passengers.
With a 9.5% yearly increase in passenger volume, the limit is expected to be crossed in 2018. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told officials to implement the project on a priority basis. But the process has been stalled as neither JICA, the South Korean
government nor the Kuwait Fund is agreeing to finance the project.
A civil aviation ministry’s August 5 report says the Japanese government or Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) did not respond to the Economic Relations Division’s (ERD) letter on funding this project.
Meanwhile, an ERD report says that the civil aviation ministry has been asked to initiate measures to arrange funds from the Chinese government.
