60% work of HSIA 3rd terminal complete

The attractive third terminal building of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is now visible as 60 per cent of the construction work has been completed.

At present, the interior decoration and the installation of various types of equipment are ongoing. The new terminal is scheduled to be inaugurated in October this year, State minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali shared the updates on Tuesday.

He said that various development works, including increasing runway strength, construction of new terminals and modernisation of security systems, are taking place at all airports across Bangladesh to reduce infrastructural limitations, improve passenger service and ensure better and safer flight operation.

Mahbub was speaking at a press conference after inspecting the project’s progress and the passenger services and other activities at HSIA’s Terminals 1 and 2, including immigration, customs hall, check-in counter, baggage area, expatriate welfare desk and green channel.

“The Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry and the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) regularly monitor the operations at the existing terminals to ensure proper services. After Terminal 3 opens, passengers will get international standard services with the infrastructural constraints removed,” he added.

At the briefing, CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman said the first phase of works of Terminal 3 will be completed by April 2024.

He claimed that nearly Tk 700 crore was saved in the first phase. “We will use this money to take care of other works including some new facilities that have been added to the project.”

“Therefore, after the first stage is complete, tenders will be floated for the second stage. After all, the entire work on the terminal will be complete by the end of 2024,” Mafidur added.

He said at first, Terminal 3 was supposed to have 12 boarding bridges. “But in line with updated plans, when it’s complete, there will be 26. With those in operation, our ability to provide facilities to 10 million passengers will go up to 16 million. It will be a huge capacity increase for us.”

Responding to a question, State Minister Mahbub said that work is also ongoing to upgrade the runway’s Instrument Landing System (ILS) at HSIA from Category 1 to Category 2. “For that, air traffic at present remains stopped for five hours at night.

“However, we are trying to ensure that passengers do not face any problems because of this. After the ILS update is complete, the current restrictions on aircraft landing here in dense fog will be largely removed,” he stressed.