The northern region of Bangladesh which is popularly known as North Bengal ( or, Uttar Banga or Uttaranchal in Bengali) has four full-fledged civilian airports in Rajshahi, Ishwardi, Saidpur and Thakurgaon, one STOL ( Short Take-off and Landing) in Bogura and an enormously extensive military airfield in Lalmonirhat. At present, Ishwardi, located in Pabna district, and Thakurgaon airports are inoperative though the earlier one was regularly used by civil aviation operators including Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the state owned national flag carrier of Bangladesh. Since 2014 the flight operations have been stopped in Ishwardi airport due to sharp decline in number of passengers to avail the air connectivity. The story of Thakurgaon airport is totally different and carries a long-standing dismal reality. The CAAB ( Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh) had started commercial flight services in 1977 after considerable renovation work but the services had to be stopped due to acute uneconomic response from the local populace which led to its closure in 1980.
As the aviation reality shows only Rajshahi and Saidpur airports are functional at present. Both are domestic airports but have hugely profitable scope if upgraded to international ones with expanded state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities.
The Govt. of Bangladesh under the farsighted and dynamic premiership of Sheikh Hasina, the illustrious daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib, has explicit plans and projects to develop the entire aviation infrastructure and industry in Bangladesh to meet the burgeoning demands of fast growing economy and rapidly changing society of this young nation-state in Indian subcontinent.
In this paper I shall concentrate on the Saidpur airport which has an appreciable remunerative dimension due to its extremely favourable geographical location.
The Saidpur airport is located in the outskirts of the Saidpur town in Nilphamari district of Bangladesh. The Nilphamari district is part of the greater Rangpur sub-region in northern Bangladesh. Moreover the Saidpur town has an acclaimed past since the British colonial period. The town started to develop as a centre of commercial and industrial activities in undivided India after the establishment of a railway locomotive workshop in 1870. The large demand of labour to work in the railway industry invited in large scale influx and settlement of working class people from nearby Bihar. After the historic partition of India in 1947 and eventual creation of Pakistan as a separate homeland for the Indian Muslims greater number of Muslims from Bihar and erstwhile United Provinces ( present Uttar Pradesh) had come to settle in Saidpur and adjoining semi-urban areas. During the Pakistan period a cantonment and civilian airport had been established. The airport project was started in 1971, the most remarkable year in the history of Bangladesh, and completed in late 1970s. The airport became fully operational in 1979.
The saga of the construction of Saidpur airport is poignantly intertwined with the armed liberation struggle of Bangladesh in 1971. In that year the Pakistani military junta forcibly employed the local Bengali working class people to give labour in the project as the
Saidpur-Parbatipur neighbourhood witnessed violent ethnic clashes between the migrant Urdu speaking staunch pro-Pakistani Bihari population and provincial pro-independence Bengali people in March when the erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was emotionally submerged in the vehement Bengali nationalistic torrents of non-cooperation movement called
by unquestioned leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The Saidpur airport is the only functional airport of Rangpur division is operating on 134.30 acres of land. It has 6000 metres of asphalt surfaced runway.
Presently the Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the private operators Novoair, Regent Airways and US-Bangla Airlines are offering aviation services from Saidpur to Dhaka, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar to make it one of the busiest airports of the country.
Since 2018 after the announcement of Sheikh Hasina the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism has initiated the expansion work of the Saidpur airport. For the complete implementation of this project 912.90 acres of land is needed to be acquired and about 5000 Taka crores will be required. The Nilphamari district administration will acquire 535 acres and Dinajpur administration will 317 acres of land. The process of proposed land acquisition is nearly complete.
Under the expansion and allied modernisation project of the Saidpur airport a new terminal complex, parking space for two aircrafts are going on in full swing. The construction of new taxiway, apron, cargo terminal building, air control tower, power house, pump house, fire station, administrative building, VIP and VVIO lounges, radar station are included under the project.
Except these, the construction of park parking space, approach road, peripheral patrol road, overhead water tank, etc. are also included in the expansion and modernisation plan.
The present 6000 metres of runway will be extended to 12000 metres to make the basic airport infrastructure eligible for a standard international airport. After the completion of the
expansion-cum-modernisation plan Saidpur will be the fifth international airport in Bangladesh and one of the foremost regional hubs of air connectivity.
The geographical location of Saidpur airport makes it proximate to Nepal, Bhutan and northeast India including Siliguri corridor. In this backdrop both Nepal and Bhutan have expressed their sincere intent to use and utilise the aviation facilities of Saidpur.
In February 2020 bilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Nepal and Bangladesh, held in Meghna State Guest House in Dhaka the landlocked Himalayan nation proposed to use the Saidpur airport which is not very far from it and the Bagdogra airport is 160 kms away from the earlier. Again in third Foreign Office Consultation between Nepal and Bangladesh on bilateral issues the earlier country requested to allow Saidpur airport to be used for civilian purposes.
Similarly in September 2022 Bhutanese authorities have also proposed to the Bangladeshi counterparts to allow them to use Saidpur airport in order to increase regional trade and travel. The use of Saidpur airport along with Banglabandha and Burimari land ports by Bhutan is part of Bhutan-Bangladesh Transit Agreement which had been finalised at that time also.
The bilateral trade and connectivity with Nepal and Bhutan will accelerate to a great extent if the Saidpur airport is properly developed into a modern international aviation centre.
The upliftment of Saidpur airport will also encourage the socio-economic development of the greater Rangpur region and will boost local trade, tourism and connectivity as it takes only 48 minutes from Saidpur to reach Dhaka and 30 minutes to Biratnagar and Chandragadhi near Bhadrapur of Nepal and Paro of Bhutan.
If this ambitious project gets implemented and optimal utilisation of it takes place the Saidpur airport will transform the aviation industry of Bangladesh and prove the immense strategic and economic importance of Bangladesh in whole Asia beyond an iota of doubt.