HSIA’s 3rd terminal to open on Dec 16

The third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka is set to be inaugurated on December 16 this year, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashiduzzaman Millat said on Tuesday.

The minister made the announcement while speaking to reporters after inspecting the terminal facilities.
He said the terminal building had been inaugurated during the previous government’s tenure, but necessary steps to make it fully operational had not been completed.

The minister also said the revenue-sharing arrangement for the project had been revised following discussions. Under the original terms, Bangladesh was to receive 15 percent of the revenue, while the Japanese company involved in the project would receive 85 percent. The agreement has now been revised, increasing Bangladesh’s share to 27 percent, he said.

According to Millat, the increased revenue share will help the government repay the loan taken for the project from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

He said repayment of the project loan has already begun using revenue generated from other sectors of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB). So far, Tk 1,100 crore has been repaid, while another Tk 900 crore is due to be paid in December. “If the terminal is not made operational, loan repayments will have to continue to be made from revenue generated by other sectors,” the minister said.

Against this backdrop, the government has decided to make the third terminal operational, at least partially, on December 16.

Earlier, on August 30, Millat told Parliament that the previous government had only inaugurated the terminal building without completing several critical components required to bring it into operation. He had said at the time that an additional Tk 902 crore would be required to make the terminal fully operational.

The third-terminal project was initiated by the then Awami League government in 2017. Construction began on December 28, 2019, with an estimated project cost of Tk 21,398 crore. Of the total cost, the government allocated Tk 5,000 crore, while the remaining amount was financed through a JICA loan.