Ruling out some aviation experts observation that having a mixed fleet would not be favorable for Biman Bangladesh airlines, Airbus has claimed that currently the Bangladesh flag carrier is not benefiting from fleet commonality.
"Fleet commonality is an asset when there is commonality of system designs and technology, which is not the case with the existing Biman fleet," President and Managing Director at Airbus India and South Asia Remi Maillard told BSS recently in an written interview.
He said Biman does not enjoy any benefit of "cross-crew qualification" training for lack of a common cockpit design as its fleet consists with different version of six Boeing 777-300 ER, four Boeing 787-8, two Boeing 787-9, six Boeing 737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.
However, when Bangladesh government showed its intention to buy planes from the Airbus, some aviation experts observed that a complex fleet will add additional investment and maintenance cost to Boeing dominated fleet of Biman to manage spare parts and to train new set of pilots.
Currently, the European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the archrival of US based Boeing, is undergoing a negation to finalize a deal with the Bangladesh government to sell 10 wide body A350 aircraft including two freight planes to long-time Boeing customer Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
On May last, a Joint Communique was signed in London between Lord Dominic Johnson, UK Minister of State in the Department of Business and Trade, and Salman F. Rahman, Bangladesh Prime Minister Private Industry and Investment Adviser, with the aim of establishing an aviation and trade partnership to develop Bangladesh aviation sector.
Maillard claimed that the Communique, includes the purchase of 10 A350 aircraft, including two A350 Freighters, from Airbus.
The Airbus regional President said that the A350 freighter has total operational commonality with its passenger version siblings so pilots can fly all variants of A350 under the same rating, saving time and money for Biman Bangladesh.
However, Chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, who is also a board member of Biman Bangladesh airlines, recently said, Bangladesh government will purchase aircraft from either Airbus or Boeing, whoever will offer a good deal.
A small entrepreneur in Kamrangichar area in Dhaka has made cost effective pavement tiles for the first time in Bangladesh by recycling alarmingly increased plastic waste, one of the factors of environmental degradation.
"I have already produced 1000 pieces of tiles by recycling plastic waste ... I am very optimistic that this tiles will be commercially viable as it is cost effective and durable compare to the ceramic tiles," Nazir Hossain, who turned the plastic waste into assets, told BSS today.
The plastic tile was formally launched today by displaying at the "Poribesh Mela (environment fair) 2023" marking today World Environment Day under the theme of solution to plastic pollution".
This innovation seems to give a new idea to the country waste experts those are desperately looking for durable solution to manage plastic waste while nearly 650 tons of plastic waste have been collected daily only in Dhaka.
Nazir, the owner of Hossain engineering workshop in Kamrangichar area in the capital, thanked a local non-government organization named Resource Integration Center (RIC) that facilitated him to turn his innovation into reality.
Source: BSS
The real estate business in Bangladesh in threat due to the sudden increase in raw material prices amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, strain on foreign currency reserves, and the latest Detailed Area Plan (DAP) for Dhaka city has caused real estate sales to plunge to a five-year low, according to industry insiders.
Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) leaders demanded that maximum companies have cut the number of new projects.
REHAB Vice President Kamal Mahmud said “maximum companies in Mirpur and Jatrabari areas did not get any new project.”
“The price of flats will go up 30-40 per cent in the next year due to the implementation of new DAP and the price hike of construction raw materials,” he added.
REHAB president Alamgir Shamsul Alamin said, "We realtors are trying to compromise with buyers who booked apartments before the rise in raw material costs, which increased abnormally to become a burden for both asset buyers and developers."
Local developers are now being cautious in taking up new projects considering the current adversities.
"Under the current circumstances, there is no scope for realtors to be over-ambitious," Alamin said. "So, realtors should move very carefully and focus on completing their ongoing projects."
Assurance Developments Ltd chief executive officer Md Arifur Rahman said the construction costs have increased by Tk 1,500 to Tk 12,000 per square foot depending on the size and locations of the properties being developed in Dhaka city.
"So, realtors are following a go-slow business policy to tackle the situation," he added., adding that, so, the buyers are losing the buying capacity.
Building Technology & Ideas Ltd (bti) managing director FR Khan said as a result, flat prices have gone up by Tk 10 lakh to Tk 50 lakh in the past six months.
According to Khan, the pressure of higher global inflation and Russia-Ukraine war have directly affected the local real estate sector and he apprehends the demand for flats may fall owing to volatility in the global economy.
Overall, the real estate sector is not in a comfortable stage at the moment as the price of land is increasing, he said.
REHAB officials said that the new DAP has decreased the building size by 40% to 50% due to Floor Area Ratio (FAR) reduction, which is why realtors have increased the prices of apartments. Because of this, buyers are struggling to buy apartments.
Registration directorate Assistant Inspector General Sheikh Md Anwarul Haque said that the number of sales contracts of apartments, plots, commercial spaces, and commercial plots that have been registered till September this year, is not even half of that of the same period even during the Covid crisis. Apartments, in particular, are the least sold this year, he added.
According to REHAB, there are 35 lakh workers in the housing sector and over 260 backward linkage sectors that are suffering along with the developers.
REHAB Vice President Engineer Mohd Shohel Rana demanded that all real estate business organizations, employees and workers are facing threat due to decreasing the number of sale and new constructions.
Especially, the DAP implementation has created a big threat for real estate business, insiders claimed.
CHATTOGRAM, June 3: The Banshkhali power plant – SS Power I Limited – in Chattogram is expected to start producing electricity by the end of 2022.
Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming visited the under-construction thermal plant Thursday in coastal upazila Banshkhali.
Officials of the plant, developed as a joint venture with local partner S Alam Group, said one of the units of the under-construction 1320MW coal-fired power plant will be commissioned by December this year.
The Chinese ambassador said many such power plants are being built with the help of Chinese people and Chinese teams: “And this is the second (power plant) that is going to be completed very soon (in Bangladesh).”
“I’ve been to Payra, which is exactly the same size. And I’m glad that this one (Banshkhali power plant) is almost ready. Payra power plant, as far as I know, helped Bangladesh realise its 100 percent electrification target,” Ambassador Li said.
“I’m sure that this one (Banshkhali) will enhance the 100 percent electrification of this country,” he added.