The Happy Traveler

Bangladesh needs to explore all avenues to build its infrastructure for better international connectivity. One essential component for this is to highlight investment in air travel; both passenger and cargo travel, at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Currently a third Terminal is being built as a priority project of the government at a total cost of  ৳ 21,300 crore ( US$2.5 billion).  The  Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh  (CAAB) operates and maintains the airport. With the completion of Terminal three in 2022 the HSIA’s annual  passenger handling capacity will increase to 20 million from the current eight million. And the annual cargo handling capacity will also increase to 500,000 tons from the current 200,000 tons. However, the HSIA has only one runway for servicing international flights, domestic flights, and for use by the  Bangladesh Air Force . Currently  eight flights take off and land every hour at the HSIA. With one runway and three terminals travel will

It was a hot Monday morning on the 24 th of May and I had been awake all night from the excitement of visiting the Padma Bridge, Bangladesh’s iconic infrastructure mega project. At 9:30PM we left home and took the road for the Mawa Highway past the Dhaka University Campus, over the Hanif flyover, and finally arrived near the Mawa Bridge Point having driven 50 kilometers in 1.5 hours. Our first course of business was to meet Padma Bridge Engineers at one of their quarters and after getting acquainted we had some snacks and tea headed out for the Bridge construction site. From the Engineer’s quarters, the Padma Bridge site was about a 10 min drive. After passing through an inspection check-point we stopped at the Pier One parking-lot and walked to the first Pier where the Bridge is directly over the Padma River. The Bridge spans a total of 42 piers for a length of 6.15 km. The height of the bridge varies from 18.5 meters to 25 meters. Interestingly the shape of the Bridge is the let