Construction work of the much-awaited third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is finally set to begin next December, sources in the Civil Aviation Authority Bangladesh (CAAB) confirmed. CAAB Chairman, Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman told Bangladesh Post, as all the complexity is over, and the required formalities have been completed so far, there is no barrier to starting the construction work of the third terminal at HSIA.
“If everything goes on the right track, I hope the construction work will start in December this year,” he added. Officials said, they will move to sign a contract with the consortium to award the job to the Aviation Consortium Dhaka (ACD) following approval of the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase.
According to Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the construction work of the terminal. Additional Secretary of Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, Md Muhibul Haque, had recently said, the project construction work would be completed within the next three and a half years.
Earlier, the ACD consisting of Mitsubishi Corporation, Fujita Corporation and Samsung C&T as its members, offered a contract value of Tk 20,598 crore for the work, the sources said. However, ACD was the lowest tender bidder for the construction work among other contenders.
Japanese donor agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Bangladesh government will finance the project. The JICA was supposed to provide a fund of Tk 11,214 crore while the Bangladesh government would spend Tk 2,395 crore. The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved the project on Wednesday last.
However, the quoted price of the selected contractor is 39.3 percent higher than the approved cost mentioned in the DPP (development project proposal), while 25.7 percent higher than the government’s estimated price approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).
Officials at the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry said, the Caab Board of Governors approved the proposal of the ACD and forwarded it to the ministry to place it before the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase for final approval.
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