Dhaka Airport: PM to open part of third terminal on October 7

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate a portion of the third terminal of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital on October 7.

Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab), made the announcement at a press conference yesterday held at the under-construction terminal building.

According to Caab, 12 of a total of 26 boarding bridges will be operational in October.

The Caab chief, meanwhile, said the terminal will be fully functional by the end of 2024.

He also stated that around 82 percent of the third terminal's construction work has already been completed.

"Our target is to complete 90 percent of the work before the partial inauguration. We hope everything goes accordingly," he added.

Every day, 120-130 planes from over 33 airlines take off and land at Dhaka airport's Terminal 1 and Terminal 2; around 30,000 to 35,000 passengers pass through the two terminals. This way, the airport currently serves around 8 million passengers annually.

Once fully operational, the new terminal, covering an area of 542,000 square metres, will be capable of serving more than 12 million passengers annually.

The new terminal will feature a parking apron capable of accommodating 37 aircraft. It will also have 26 boarding bridges.

A multi-storey car parking with a capacity of accommodating 1,044 vehicles is also being constructed in the terminal.

The three-storey terminal building will have 115 check-in counters, 64 departure and 64 arrival immigration desks, 27 baggage scanning machines, 16 carousels, and 11 body scanners, among other facilities.

In December 2019, Hasina inaugurated the construction work of the Tk 21,398-crore project aimed at boosting Dhaka airport's passenger and cargo handling capacity.

Of the total cost, the government is providing Tk 5,257 crore and the rest is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).