Redline may get 2-year contract

Redline Assured Security is expected to get the contract today for ensuring security screening at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport for two years at a cost of Tk 75 crore.

Under the project, the British company would also have to arrange training for Aviation Security (Avsec) screeners, to be appointed by the civil aviation ministry.

“We are not considering Restrata, the other UK company, as it has finally said it would not be able to deploy manpower [at the airport],” a top ministry official told The Daily Star yesterday.

A high-profile steering committee formed recently to oversee the government measures to ensure foolproof security at the airport would sit today at the Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (Caab) office to choose a company for the job.

Redline which had earlier proposed Tk 58 crore for ensuring overall security management at the airport for six months has submitted a fresh proposal for two years as Caab high-ups continued negotiation with it, said the official, wishing not to be named.

“Redline will deploy around 31 of its staff for screening machines at passenger terminals and cargo complex. It will also train our staff to do the screening [themselves].”

For the job, Redline and Restrata have primarily been selected from a list of four foreign security companies suggested by British High Commissioner Alison Blake during a meeting with Bangladesh government high-ups at the Prime Minister's Office on March 13.

The two other companies are G4S and Westminster Security Services.

The official said since the project would involve more than Tk 10 crore, it required a PPR (Public Procurement Resolution) and approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) and the cabinet committee on purchase.

But another official of the civil aviation ministry said, “The high-profile steering committee might get the project rolling without the approval from Ecnec or the purchase committee since it is an emergency project and it is being done for the sake of the country.”

Headed by Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon, the seven-member committee includes the prime minister's security adviser, senior home secretary, PMO secretary, secretaries of the civil aviation and foreign ministries, and the Caab chairman.

British envoy Alison Blake and other UK delegation members during the March 13 meeting suggested hiring a foreign company for security management at the airport as Bangladesh “failed to meet” some international security requirements.

The meeting took place days after the UK government imposed a ban on direct air cargo from Dhaka to London on security grounds, and the British prime minister wrote to his Bangladesh counterpart, asking for foolproof security at the airport by March 31.

In the March 8 letter, David Cameron called for a visible improvement of airport security by the deadline to avoid further measures like banning of direct passenger Biman flights from Dhaka to London.