Published : 26 Aug 2026, 02:24 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:35 AM
Japanese firm Sub Working Group has put in a bid to take over operations and maintenance of Shahjalal International Airport's third terminal.
The company filed its proposal at the headquarters of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) on Tuesday, the authority said in a media statement.
Masahiro Hirai, representing Sub Working Group, handed the proposal to CAAB Chairman Mostafa Mahmood Siddiq.
CAAB said the Japanese firm had lodged separate technical and financial documents alongside the bid.
The proposals will now go through a fixed evaluation process handled by an RFV Evaluation Committee formed by the civil aviation and tourism ministry.
The committee includes representatives from CAAB's member (administration) and member (operations and planning), the finance ministry, the civil aviation ministry, the Prime Minister's Office, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Authority, and the Roads and Highways Department.
Technical proposals will be assessed first, followed by the financial bids.
Once the evaluation wraps up, the two sides will move into talks and negotiations, CAAB said, before finalising a contract date through the standard process.
A CAAB official familiar with the Japanese bid told bdnews24.com on Tuesday that technical evaluation had begun the same day and was expected to conclude within hours.
"The financial proposal will be finalised on Thursday. Going by how Japanese firms have handled similar bids before, a final financial agreement could come through soon, barring any change of course.”
“If everything stays on track, it should be finalised before then, or by the first week of October at the latest," the official added.
Ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, toppled in the 2024 July Uprising, held a soft opening of Shahjalal's third terminal on Oct 7, 2023.
Repeated cost overruns and a string of failed initiatives since then kept the terminal from becoming fully operational.
After the BNP government took office, it pledged to bring the terminal into full operation by December this year.
Amid competing interest from multiple firms across several countries over the terminal's operations and ground handling, the government settled on handing the responsibility to a Japanese company, a decision that set the stage for this week's bid.
