FROM PAGE 1

Progress on the agreement nearly stalled during the 18-month tenure of the interim government. Talks resumed in March, shortly after the BNP-led government assumed power, according to CAAB officials.

Air Vice Marshal (retd) M Mafidur Rahman, CAAB chairman from June 2019 to June 2024, blamed the interim administration for lacking the negotiation capability to expedite the process.

When contacted, SK Bashir Uddin, former interim civil aviation adviser, claimed that they had held several rounds of intensive negotiations in an effort to reach an agreement.

Aviation expert Kazi Wahidul Alam criticised CAAB’s handling of the negotiations, noting that a deal should have been struck immediately upon the terminal’s completion.

“In that case, CAAB could have paid loan instalments from its own [terminal] income,” said Wahidul, a former member of the Biman Board of Directors.

Even when a deal is reached, immediate revenue is out of the question.

Talking to this correspondent recently, CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal Md Mostafa Mahmood Siddiq said it would take at least three months to finalise the agreement.

Following the signing, a mandatory test run -- Operation Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT) -- will require another six months to a year, pushing the actual opening into 2027.

The airport loan sits within a rapidly growing national debt narrative. Bangladesh’s total external debt nearly doubled over three years -- rising from Tk 4,95,793 crore in June 2022 to Tk 9,59,311 crore by December 2025. Over the same period, the country’s overall debt-to-GDP ratio climbed from 33.79 percent to 38.61 percent.

Loan disbursements from international financial institutions have been sluggish, reaching only 11 percent of the full-year budget target in the first half of the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Japan remains Bangladesh’s single largest bilateral creditor, accounting for 18 percent of all external bilateral debt. As 22 percent of Bangladesh’s total external debt is denominated in Japanese yen, every weakening of the taka against the yen inflates the effective cost of repayment.

Built by the Aviation Dhaka Consortium (Mitsubishi Corporation, Fujita Corporation, and Samsung C&T Corporation) at a total cost of Tk 21,300 crore, the third terminal saw a “soft inauguration” under the Awami League government in October 2023.

The terminal boasts a floor space of 230,000 square metres, housing 115 check-in counters, 66 departure immigration desks, 59 arrival immigration desks and three VIP immigration desks.

Once fully operational, the airport’s annual passenger and cargo handling capacity is expected to more than double from the current eight million passengers and 500,000 tonnes of cargo per year.