DHAKA: Despite directives of the Prime minister Sheikh Hasina twice, Biman Bangladesh Airlines is yet to fix name plaques inside of its four Boeing aircrafts. Her expectations and instructions over the national career are thus being ignored time to time.
PM herself named newly added four Boeings 777 with Biman Bangladesh Airlines as Palki, Arun Alo, Akash Pradip and Ranga Provat. She wanted these names to be inscribed inside the aircrafts.
A reliable source said Biman chairman Air Marshal (retd) Jamal Uddin Ahmed also had a direction in this connection, but engineering department is yet to follow all these directives.
The names were highly praised by all and PM also expressed joy for giving good names to the aircrafts in her speeches at different programs.
She wished name of each aircraft should remain written inside the plane so that passengers can see them easily.
On April 5, PM Hasina mentioned her desire while she was inaugurating the two new aircrafts named Mayurpangkhi and Meghdut for domestic trips. During the program at VVIP Terminal of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport government and Biman officials lauded the names.
The premier at that time expressed frustration saying, “Names are praised, but these names are not written anywhere inside the aircrafts and I always failed to know in which aircraft I got in.”
The names written on the outside bodies of the crafts are also very small, these should be written in larger font size so that those get visible from far distance, she added
Two months passed after such a desire expressed by the Premire, Biman authorities are yet to mateialize it . Biman has not taken PM’s direction seriously, a source confirmed.
When contacted, Biman general manager for Public Relations department Khan Mosharraf Hossain told banglanews that he was absent at that program and didn’t know anything about the matter.
In front of this reporter, GM Public Relations call upon another concerned official who was present at the 5 April program and became confirm that Prime Minister was saying something like that, but they did not understand that this should be given emphasis on.
At this point of time GM Mosharraf informed that this was not the first time PM expressed such a desire, some one year back she expressed her desire of placing name plaques inside the aircrafts.
Steps had been taken about one year ago in this connection, said Khan Moshraff.
It was Biman Chairman, who conveyed the desire of Premire to the concerned departments, he added.
Following the direction from Biman chairman, public relation office made ready the nameplates from Singapore, he added saying, “But my office doesn’t know why these are not installed yet inside the aircrafts.”
Reliable source said eight gold-plated plaques were made from Eng Leong Medallic Industries Pte Ltd (ELM Medallist & Jeweller) of Singapore for setting them in front of business and economy classes of each aircraft. Each of the 14”x22” plates cost 470 USD and Biman Publicity Office’s GM himself finalized the matter.
GM Mosharraf said he did not know anything about why the name plaques were not installed before second time direction from PM.
However, the cell phone of Biman engineering department director was found switched off and Banglanews is trying to talk with him.
Another source said the engineering department primarily finalized the matter of installing nameplates after ensuring the technical parts.
Preferring anonymity, a Biman official said, permission from Boeing is needed before setting up the name plaque, but this is not a big issue, engineering department needs to take steps, thats all.
BDST: 1425 HRS, JUNE 8, 2015
AKA/RR/SMS
