'Projects like these come with thousands of engineering challenges'

The much-awaited third terminal has achieved its current form after overcoming many technical and engineering challenges like screw piling and relocation of utility services.

"Contractors struggled to procure equipment amid the sudden blow of the Covid-19 lockdowns. However, as this project was a priority one for the government, work was not halted and that is why the spectacular third terminal of the Dhaka airport has been built within the stipulated time.

The Business Standard spoke to CAAB Chief Engineer Md Abdul Malek about the multi-faceted technical challenges of this large-scale operation

"If you want to implement a project like this, you have to face thousands of engineering challenges. For example, we had planned screw piling in this project. However, screw piling failed in the metro rail. So, we did not take that risk here," he said. 

"Because even if we want to test whether it [screw piling] will fail, it would cost Tk100 crore. So, instead, we saved Tk700 crore by adopting the piling method conventionally used in Bangladesh. This is an engineering technique," Malek explained.

He said that if the contractor can change the design and bring in some innovation to save some money, it is called "value engineering". 

"Half of that savings will be given to them and half will be given to civil aviation i.e. our government," he said.

Stating that some more value engineering has been added to this project, he said, "Two pier extensions are supposed to be done with the money saved by the value engineering. If prices [of raw materials] had not increased, then we would have completed the two piers with this Tk700 crore by now. This is being done in the second phase, where 14 boarding bridges are being constructed."

Mentioning that this is being done as a continuation of the first phase, Malek said, "Because of these savings, we told Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA] about starting the work of the second phase with that. And JICA agreed." 

Feasibility study, environmental impact assessment and relocation plan are given great importance when a project is approved by the government.

"Even if it takes six months to a year to do a feasibility study, it needs to be done very carefully. Especially for such megaprojects, the feasibility study needs to be done by a foreign company," he said.

Pointing out the challenges of the relocation plan, he said, "The biggest challenge of this project was that the locations where the terminal connects to the road had Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited [Desco] lines, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited [BTCL] lines, Titas gas lines, as well as road connections done by Roads and Highways department. We had to meet with each stakeholder several times."

"In the survey that was done in the initial stage of this project, the utility services of these different departments were not taken into consideration. Otherwise, we could have completed this project earlier," he added.

He said that even now they continue to meet with everyone about these services. 

"Even at the last leg of the project, we have yet to get permission from the Roads and Highways Department for the location where the project meets the road. You will see that the Desco cable is still hanging, that connection has not been reattached yet," Malek said.

Mentioning the engineering challenges still to be faced, he said, "Price rates were recorded in 2018/19. Now, due to the pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and other global issues, the prices have increased a lot. So, the contractors are not able to complete the work at these rates."

Pointing out that it has become a big challenge, he said that for this, they are talking to officials of different levels of the government about how to solve this problem while maintaining the contractual obligations.