The telecom regulator is set to sign the final deal on January 15 for procuring an orbital slot from Russian satellite company Intersputnik to launch the country’s first satellite – Bangabandhu 1.
Senior officials of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) said they started getting ready for a swift launch of the satellite after getting the government’s nod for the orbital slot lease.
The BTRC is also preparing to offload the final tender within a month for sending the main communication and broadcasting satellite into space.
“Representatives from Intersputnik are going to arrive in Dhaka to ink a deal with the BTRC this week and everything is close to final for signing the deal on January 15,” ATM Monirul Alam, commissioner (spectrum management) of BTRC, told the Dhaka Tribune.
On December 31 last year, the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved the proposal for orbital slot lease following the direct procurement method (DPM) to launch the communication and broadcasting satellite on 119.1 East longitude, with the cost fixed at $28m (around Tk218.96 crore).
Although the government had six alternative offers – some even cheaper – for launching its first satellite, it stood firm on its decision to launch the satellite on a faster arrangement.
According to the contract draft with Intersputnik, the BTRC will pay 20% of the cost ($5.6m) to the Russia-based international space communication services organisation within 90 days after the deal is sealed.
The BTRC also needs to pay 30% of the cost ($8.4m) within the next 15 months, 25% ($7m) within 18 months after that, and the rest within the next eight months.
Earlier, the BTRC also signed a non-disclosure agreement with Intersputnik on March 29, 2012, and then a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding in February 10, 2013, which expired on December 31, 2014.
BTRC sources said the slot would be bought for a period of 15 years, which can be extended twice, for the same amount of time and with no additional payment. Monirul Alam, also the convener of the evaluation committee of launching satellite, said the
project office was also preparing the tender documents and offloading the final tender would take hardly three to four weeks.
“Getting inspiration from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, we are doing faster and faster with the process and hope we can launch the satellite within the deadline,” Monirul said.
The proposed duration of the Bangabandhu Satellite Launching Project stretches between July 2014 to June 2017.
“Although we are already six months behind our schedule, we are very optimistic about finishing the project within the given time – by June 2017,” Monirul added.
The government plans to launch the satellite in the middle of 2017, almost two and a half years later than its initial plan of sending it into space at the end of 2014.
Currently, India and Pakistan are the only countries in the subcontinent with satellites, and Sri Lanka is working on launching one of its own.