2nd runway at Cox’s Bazar airport soon: Minister
Officials involved in the project said it will end on time as 80% of its work has been completed
The expansion of the Cox's Bazar airport's runway, the longest in the country, will be completed soon, State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali has said.
Moreover, the work on the second runway at the airport will begin soon. A big terminal will also be constructed at the airport, said Md Mahbub Ali while visiting the project on Monday.
Officials involved in the project said it will end on time as 80% of its work has been completed.
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Li Guangqi, manager of Cox's Bazar Airport runway expansion project, said, "Constructing a runway claiming land from the sea was not easy. Since the start of work in 2021, we have faced many challenges. We struggled especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, after which the Russia-Ukraine war started."
He said soon people will be able to fly to and from Cox's Bazar during night as well as day. Until now, due to short runway length and underdeveloped infrastructure, the airport could not handle all types of aircraft. Therefore, foreign tourists visiting the world's longest natural unbroken sea beach had to go to Cox's Bazar via Dhaka.
To alleviate these problems, the Civil Aviation Authority adopted a master plan in 2012 to upgrade Cox's Bazar Airport to an international standard by expanding the runway and terminal building. But lack of land complicated the runway expansion project.
Finally, the authorities decided to stretch the runway to the sea with an aim to solve the land crisis as well as to make it look beautiful. This is the first facility in the country that is built in this way.
At present, the Cox's Bazar airport runway is 2.74km long, which will increase to 3.2km after the expansion project that involves around Tk1,900 crore.
