PM to open Cox’s Bazar airport runway expansion works tomorrow

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to officially inaugurate the expansion work on the Cox’s Bazar Airport runway virtually tomorrow as part of a project to make it an international standard one, BSS reports.

The government has taken the initiative to upgrade the airport through extending its runway by reclaiming land from the sea so that international flights operated by wide body aircraft can land at the airport.

After completion of the project, the new 10,700 feet runway will allow wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing 777 and 747 to operate at the airport paving the way for operation of international flights.

State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism M Mahbub Ali and Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) will be present in person at the ceremony.

The CAAB signed a deal for the project with the Chinese joint venture of Changjiang Yichang Waterway Engineering Bureau (CYWEB) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on February 9 this year.
The project is scheduled to be completed by May 2024 with an estimated cost of Taka 1,568.86 crore.

The project was approved by the government on November 4, 2018.

The detailed design and construction of temporary facilities, including a site office, road networks, jetty, and concrete batching plant had been substantially completed.

The main construction work would begin after the prime minister laid the foundation stone of the project, CAAB officials said

Mahbub Ali said after completion of the project, tourists from different countries can directly reach Cox’s Bazar as a tourist destination.

He said the project is an important advancement towards government’s vision to make Cox’s Bazar a single tourism destination for the inbound tourists here.