Published : 17 Aug 2026, 10:23 PM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:33 AM
The government has evaluated potential sites to construct one permanent and one temporary warehouse at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport to resolve persistent cargo handling snarls.
An inter-ministerial meeting held at the Secretariat on Monday scrutinised seven tentative locations for the temporary facility and four sites for the permanent structure, according to a Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism media statement.
The meeting also discussed building cold storage infrastructure to speed up medicine imports and exports, preparing ground handling guidelines, sending import notices to importers more quickly and developing an artificial intelligence model to locate imported cargo.
Civil Aviation Minister Afroza Khanam said inter-agency efforts are under way to transform Biman Bangladesh Airlines into a “safer, modern, and efficient” operator, prioritising swift solutions to longstanding technical and infrastructural hurdles.
She stressed simplifying formalities while ensuring transparency and accountability to execute decisions rapidly.
On the proposed AI integration, Afroza said Bangladesh aims to lead rather than follow in tech adoption.
Deploying cutting-edge technology for faster cargo clearance will add a new dimension to the country's aviation sector, the minister added.
She urged agencies to work in tandem to construct the permanent and temporary warehouses without delay.
Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir told the meeting that building and managing airport infrastructure fell to the relevant authorities, not Customs, whose role was limited to verifying the legality of imported and exported goods, along with declarations, paperwork and duties.
"Once the necessary infrastructure is built, Customs will carry out its operations there. So the infrastructural issues need to be resolved quickly to boost cargo handling capacity," he said.
"This may not fall directly under the commerce ministry's remit, but it's closely tied to the country's trade and export activities. Modern cargo management at the airport is especially critical for expanding trade with the European Union."
He pledged “full cooperation” from his ministry.
