The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) is in the process of appointing a new Project Dictator (PD) of the much-anticipated third terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport just to complete the rest of the structure.
CAAB source said that they are determined to start construction of the remaining 0.5 per cent works of the third terminal by this year at any cost. Three names have been proposed and sent to the Ministry for the appointment of PD of the Third Terminal. They are Engr Subhashish Barua, Md Shariful Islam and AH Md Nuruddin Chowdhury.
Questions have arisen about the rationale behind the proposal to appoint a new PD for only 0.5 per cent of the works, excluding the existing PD, after 99.5 per cent of the works of the Third Terminal project has been completed. Those concerned fear that the operation of the Third Terminal may be prolonged due to repeated PD appointments.
Dr Jobaidul Islam, head of the Anti-Corruption Coordination Committee of the CAAB, said, "Although the PD of development projects cannot be changed frequently as per government instructions." He demanded that the project activities be continued by the current PD instead of appointing a new PD.
In response to a question, he said, "Currently, 99.5 per cent of the project work has already been completed. Therefore, it would not be right to go through the hassle of appointing a new PD to implement the remaining 0.5 per cent of the construction works."
Instead, the existing PD will be able to easily complete the remaining minor works of the project in addition to his main responsibilities. If the project again falls into PD complications, the announcement that the Third Terminal will be commissioned this year or early next year will be further delayed."
The contractual appointment of AKM Maksudul Islam on December 23 last year was cancelled. The appointment of PD required clearance from the National Security Intelligence Agency (NSI) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). It took a long time to obtain these two clearances. Later, after about three months, Engr Zakaria Hossain was appointed as PD.
Currently, Zakaria Hossain has been given the current responsibility of Chief Engineer in addition to PD. In addition, the three have been proposed and sent to the ministry as PDs of the Third Terminal project.
People involved in the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity told the daily Observer that due to the lack of a PD, the project work was stopped for three long months.
The contractor and consultant's bills were not paid and due to fund shortage, the clearance of goods imported from abroad from the port was also stopped, sources added.
This resulted in a loss of about Tk 100 crore to the government due to late payment penalties on the contractor's bill as per the contract, late payment penalties for releasing goods from the port, increase in project costs due to delay in issuing work decisions.
They say that if the PD of these foreign-funded projects is changed repeatedly, the sample of the new PD has to be sent for approval to various institutions including the Ministry of Civil Aviation, ERD, donor agency JICA, Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank and others.
A new PD was appointed with the approval of the Chief Adviser after a long period of about 3 months, the CAAB has once again faced questions about sending a proposal to appoint a new PD to the Ministry.
The Third Terminal will boast a floor space of 230,000 square metres, housing 115 check-in counters, 66 departure immigration desks, 59 arrival immigration and 3 VIP immigration desks.
Upon full-fledged operation of the third terminal, HSIA's annual passenger and cargo handling capacity is expected to double.
The annual passenger handling capacity of the HSIA would be 24 million (including the old terminals). At present, the Dhaka airport can handle eight million passengers and 500,000 tonnes of cargo each year.
