No bar on Dhaka airport tender, rules apex court

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld its chamber judge's order that stayed a High Court directive which halted the tender process for extension of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and construction of its third terminal.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after disposing of a petition filed by the state seeking stay on the HC order.

The government can go ahead with the tender process for extension of the airport and construction of its third terminal following the apex court order, Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul told The Daily Star.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) on September 11 last year floated the tender.

Later, Gap Insaat, a Turkish construction company in Bangladesh, filed a writ petition with the HC challenging the legality of CAAB's tender process.

Following the writ petition, the HC on March 14 this year stayed the tender process and issued a rule questioning its legality.

The state then filed a petition with the SC seeking stay on the HC order.

After a brief hearing on the state's petition, the SC's chamber judge on March 19 stayed the HC order and sent the state's petition to its full bench for hearing the same stay petition yesterday.