14 Boeing planes at Tk 30,000-35,000cr: Interim govt eyes long-term deal
The government is going to sign a deal with Boeing to purchase 14 planes valued at around Tk 30,000-35,000 crore.
Civil Aviation Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin disclosed the development at a press conference at his Secretariat office.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. “A techno-financial analysis has been completed based on the proposals received from both Airbus and Boeing. A negotiation team was formed with Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud, leading it to negotiate the price with Boeing,” he said.
“This negotiation is still ongoing. If we complete this process, Alhamdulillah, but if not, unfortunately, we won’t be able to complete our procurement,” the adviser said.
“The aircraft buying proposal that we are making may be valued at around Tk 30,000 to Tk 35,000 crore. We will have to pay this amount over 10 years. In fact, it may take even longer than that, because the payment schedule is very long-term. It may take as long as 20 years to complete the payment. So, if you consider this, we may have to pay around Tk 1,500 crore to Tk 2,000 crore per year,” added the adviser.
Asked about the purchase of aircraft from the US plane maker, the adviser said, “We promised to buy 25 aircraft. Our context was under WTO Section 21, where the United States declared a national emergency. Under this national emergency, they have framed a global agreement, called the ART Agreement, and sadly, this agreement leaked from Bangladesh.”
The adviser said, “In return, we have been humiliated, but I don’t think anything was disclosed from this leaked document that would harm national interests. Whenever any agreement is in the early stages, there is always a non-disclosure agreement. This Non-disclosure agreement means that if anyone wants to buy property or enter into any bilateral contract, there is a non-disclosure clause until the contract is executed. Once the contract is executed, the agreement will certainly be disclosed. I don’t see any issue with the disclosure.”
Bashir also said, “A total of 16 million passengers flew from Dhaka airport last year. Of them, only two million passengers were carried by Biman. The reason for this is that we don’t have the capacity to carry passengers.
The adviser said that out of the total 19 aircraft, Biman has only 14 flyable planes.
“With these 14 planes, our network and our master plan for the airline show that we need 47 planes by 2035,” he also said.
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