Tk 1193.32cr to upgrade Cox’s Bazar Airport

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UNB, Dhaka :
The government has taken a project to upgrade Cox’s Bazar Airport to facilitate the take-off and landing of large aircraft and thus enhance regional communications through air and help boost the country’s tourism industry.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved the project titled ‘Development of Cox’s Bazar Airport (1st phase) involving Tk 1193.32 crore. Of the total project cost, Tk 801.66 crore will come from the national exchequer while the rest of Tk 391.66 crore from the organisation’s own fund.
Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), under the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, will implement the project by June 2018. According to a Planning Commission official, the Cox’s Bazar Airport development project witnessed nearly 394 percent cost hike from the original estimate.
CAAB took project in 2009 at a cost of Tk 302.65 crore to complete it by June 2012. Following its failure to implement the project in time, the government extended the timeframe up to December 2013 with an upward revision of the cost to Tk 549.64 crore.
Then again, CAAB failed to implement the project and got one and half years’ time extension up to June 2015 to complete the project without increasing the cost. CAAB then sent the 2nd revised project proposal to the Planning Commission seeking Tk 890.67 crore additional fund from its original outlay of  
Tk 302.65 crore while the execution timeline up to December 2018 due to more land acquisition alongside cost, increase in market rate and quotation rate of the tender, cost escalation of various components, including local and foreign consultancy services.
The Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) of the Planning Commission then sat on August 3 last year where the Planning Commission recommended restructuring the revised Development Project Proposal (DPP) of the Cox’s Bazar airport development with an estimated cost of Tk 1193.32 crore.
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