New Trishal airport a utopian dream
Shahabuddin Ahmad
The Government has drawn up a plan to construct the first phase of a new international airport costing a whopping Tk. 50,000 crore on build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. The new airport to be named Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib International Airport located at Trishal in Mymensingh district, 97km away from the capital.
Acting Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation & Tourism, Shafiq Alam Mehdi made the announcement the other day.
The airport is to be built on an area of 1200 acres of the government land and would be the largest in the country. The feasibility study of the proposed airport has been left to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB). However, according to the US-based Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) report, the CAAB has failed to comply with the safety regulations of the International Civil Aviation Authority.
Now the question is: If the CAAB has failed to fulfil this routine requirement, how and why this blessed organization has been given the task for preparing the feasibility report of a new civil airport? While globally there are many firms who would be ready to construct a new airport for Bangladesh on BOOT basis, but the question remains does the CAAB have the professional competence to prepare such a feasibility report and is also capable of examining the same? Senior officers in the CAAB are mostly on deputation from the Bangladesh Air force (BAF). Its chairman Air Cdr S.K. Majlish and the Member Operations Group Captain M. Nizamul Hossain and some other officers who are in key positions, cannot lead a team of planners for the construction of a civil airport as none of them has any such experience.
The country's first international airport near the Prime Minister Office was abandoned when the Zia International Airport - now renamed as Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) - was finally completed partly by former President Ziaur Rahman. The old airport building is now under the occupation of the Public Service Commission and the vast stretch of land around is not being utilised for any productive purpose in this land-hungry city of Dhaka. Assuming that the proposed airport is completed (only God knows when) what will happen to the present HSIA which is being modernized all the time adding new facilities unavailable hitherto. As a matter of fact foreign visitors and non-resident Bangladeshis like the modernization of the airport which has been in progress for the last so many years.
Enormous cost
Media reports say the first phase of the proposed airport is likely to be completed in 5 years and the present Government led by the Awami League has already completed 16 months of its 5 years' tenure. Whether they will return to power in 2013 polls is not known. Under the circumstances, the conception of the new airport by the government appears utopian. Should the present government create a liability for the country as the first phase of the job is estimated to cost Tk. 50,000 crores?
Does Bangladesh need a new international airport now, keeping in view the position of air traffic? Senior airport officials say its capacity is currently underutilised. Besides, there is a provision in the master plan of the existing airport for another runway and an additional taxiway which are yet to be constructed. Industry experts say, it will be wiser for the government to first construct the second runway and another taxiway and use the present airport for next 20 years without much difficulty.
The CAAB does not release any statistics regarding the number of travelling passengers and amount of cargo passing through the HSIA. So it is difficult to assess whether Bangladesh needs a new international airport at this stage. Our information suggests that the HSIA does neither handle the projected number of passengers nor cargo yet. Our attempts to get the airport statistics have failed as the CAAB treats it as a piece of classified information.
Grandiose plan
According to the plan, the airport will be established on 6,000 acres of land with three 9000ft runways. An elevated express way will be built to link the airport with Dhaka (97km from the airport at Trishal).
In the first phase, a dual terminal and a runway will be constructed with parking areas and other support facilities including a hanger, a fire station and a workshop. Two additional passengers' terminal and runways will be constructed by 2020.
Shafiq Alam Mehdi said that the construction of the new airport is necessary as the present airport is unable to cope with volume of cargo exported from Dhaka and the volume is increasing. He has not given any passenger figure who are using HSIA now and in the absence of supporting figure, his claims appear unconvincing.
Shafiq Alam Mehdi has said that the airport is being built to meet the demand of air passengers during the next 100 years.
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