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Bangladesh – following a Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) judgment – laid claim to 19,467 square kilometres of sea area. But Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport’s (HSIA) outdated analogue radar system makes it impossible to detect aircrafts in the vast shoreline.
To close this loophole, the government is going to install a state-of-the-art radar system by Thales LAS, a French radar manufacturing company, at the HSIA. This new system will allow proper monitoring and identification of any aircraft in Bangladesh’s airspace.
This in turn will make the country’s airspace significantly more secure, says Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB).
Speaking to The Business Post, CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said, “Though we plan to inaugurate this radar system at the HSIA this October, it will become fully operational in the first quarter of 2024.
“This modern system – when installed – will help us bring the entire airspace of Bangladesh under surveillance. It will make the flights safer, and the country will benefit financially as well.”
According to CAAB sources, at present, the country’s aircraft movement is controlled through the radar and navigation system at the HSIA. However, this radar system became outdated for some time.
The air traffic control has to struggle to monitor the airspace with this radar, which was installed nearly 30 years ago.
Insiders say due to low capacity of HSIA’s existing radar system, the newly controlled vast areas of the Bay of Bengal are beyond its reach. As a result, Bangladesh cannot identify any aircraft which are flying through these areas. So, the sovereignty of the airspace is at risk.
Besides, Bangladesh currently earns no revenue from commercial aircrafts flying over these areas. So, the installation of a better radar system will grant the country an opportunity to earn foreign currency. It should be noted that the neighbouring India and Myanmar are making money as they have radar coverage in such areas.
Missing out on flying over charge
As per globally-followed regulations, any airline from any country that uses the airspace of Bangladesh has to pay a fee – known as the “flying over charge.”
Bangladesh had already made several attempts since 2005 to replace its 30-year-old radar system with a new one, but those initiatives never saw the light of day till now.
In March, 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved a proposal to implement a radar project. The cost was estimated at Tk 1,755 crores. Several media reports were published on the project in that period, and some criticised the alleged overspending.
This approval was later revoked. Later in 2021, CAAB got approval to implement this project with its own funding. The expenditure is now estimated to be around Tk 730 crore.
CAAB signed an agreement with French aerospace company Thales in October, 2021 in the city’s InterContinental Hotel to install a new radar system at the Dhaka airport.
Work on the project titled “HSIA’s CNS-ATM (Communication, Navigation and Surveillance-Air Traffic Management) System Including Radar Installation” is scheduled to be completed by 2024.
CAAB chairman Mafidur said the construction of a building – which will house the radar system in HSIA – is about 50 per cent complete. The building will be completed this September, and the radar will be installed there around the same timeframe.
The modern radar system is expected to be inaugurated in October this year.
System integration of radar with other airports will be completed by the middle of next year, he said, adding, “Officials are being trained in different places including France on how to utilise this new radar system. We are preparing to adopt the technology to manage it properly.
“Most importantly, by deploying this radar, Bangladesh will be able to see and control its shoreline airspace. When we get this sophisticated control system, more traffic will flow through Bangladesh. As a result, more revenue will come.”
Mafidur added that Bangladesh will build staff capacity to utilise this radar system, and it will be the most modern management system in this region.
