Germany is lagging behind other EU countries in terms of seats sold on flights to and from the country, figures show. Domestic air travel is showing the slowest recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Air travel to and from Germany in the first half of 2023 is likely to reach just 78% of the rate before the COVID pandemic broke out in 2020, according to figures released by the German Aviation Association (BDL) on Saturday. This means Germany is lagging behind its EU peers in the sector, with air travel in other European countries at 94% of the pre-pandemic level. The figure does, however, represent 20% growth compared with the first half of 2022. What are the reasons for the slow recovery? The BDL said the lower level of domestic air travel, which has reached only 56% of the pre-pandemic rate, is largely responsible for the slow recovery. "Here, a shift in traffic to road and rail is noticeable, among other things" it said. However, the drop in domestic flying can also be attributed to the fact that low-cost airlines are avoiding most German airports, while increasing their services elsewhere. This is reflected by statistics showing that the number of connections from German airports are more than a third lower than before the pandemic. Only four of Germany's larger airports — Dortmund, Hahn, Karlsruhe and Memmingen — will be offering more flights in the first half of 2023 than in the same period in 2019, largely owing to the presence of lower-cost airlines. The boss of the economy airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has in the past criticized German airports for their high fees. His carrier and the cut-price airline Wizz have raised the number of flights they are offering outside of Germany. Long-haul flights, on the other hand, have made a better post-pandemic recovery, with trips to and from North America as the biggest factor.

The government expects to recover the Padma Bridge’s construction cost in next 35 years through a “well calculated” toll rate, officials said today. “The toll rate has been fixed in a calculated way so the construction cost of the country’s biggest bridge could be recovered in next 35 years,” an official of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) said. He said the bridge was constructed with domestic financing, discarding foreign loans or grant of any type while the finance ministry provided BBA an amount of Taka 30,000 crore as credit, which “we will have to repay with one per cent interest rate in 35 years”. “We will have to repay the loan with one per cent loan in 140 quarterly installments,” the official said adding that the toll rate was fixed also considering the issues of the VAT and tax, the bridge’s management and maintenance alongside the occasional river training. A BBA statement later substantiated his remarks saying an additional amount of Taka 340 crore would be repaid against the loan of Taka 211 crore taken during design framing of the mega-structure. It said the vehicle operators using the bridge would have to pay on an average 50 per cent more than the fare they used to pay for ferry transportation. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) earned Taka 5.60 crore in November 2020 from vehicles which it ferried between Mawa and Jajira route while the BBA took the figure as one of the baselines in fixing the Padma Bridge’s toll expecting to collect Taka 8.65 crore monthly. “But this is an initial estimation for now and the amount is not enough to realise the construction and subsequent maintenance costs in 35 years,” Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project’s director Md. Shafiqul Islam told BSS. He added that the vehicular movements would be enhanced and the toll rate would be re-fixed time to time as well in the coming years to realize the expected amount “as it happened in the case of Bangabandhu Bridge. BBA officials said Bangabandhu Bridge by now realized the construction cost ahead of the expected timeline. According to a Detailed Economic and Financial Analysis by a project consultant firm in 2010, the monthly toll collection will eventually stand at Taka 133.66 crore and annual at Taka 1603.97 crore in coming years. The 35-year loan repayment schedule under the agreement between the Finance Division and the BBA, Taka 596.88 crore will have to be paid in the first year of launching vehicular movements through the bridge, which would be increased up to Taka 1475 crore annually. The government has issued a gazette notification on May 17, 2022 fixing the toll rates for the Padma Bridge, which is scheduled to open for the traffic movements on June 25. According to the notification, the toll rate for a motorcycle is Taka 100, a car and a jeep Taka 750, a pickup van Taka 1,200, a microbus Taka 1,300, a small bus (31-seat) Taka 1400, a medium bus Taka 2000, a large bus (3-axel). Taka 1,600 has been fixed for a small truck (up to 5 tons), Taka 2,100 for a medium truck (5-8 tonnes) and Taka 2,800 for a truck weighing 8-11 tonnes, Taka 5,500 for a truck (up to Three-axel), Taka 6,000 for a trailer (four-axel). The notification also said that Taka 1,500 will be added to Taka 6,000 for each extra axel of a trailer over four-axel ones. Source: BSS AH

Jammu and Kashmir police along with Special Operations Group (SOG) averted a major terror plot by recovering a huge consignment of arms and ammunition dropped by drone by the Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist outfit on the behest of Pakistan agency ISI in Arnia area of RS Pura sub-division in Jammu district, stated Jammu police on Thursday. After receiving inputs regarding drone activity and dropping of arms and ammunition by Pakistan-based terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)/The Resistance Front (TRF), a special search operation was launched by SOG (Special Operations Group) and Jammu Police in Arnia area of RS Pura sub-division. According to Police, the drone activity was launched by the terror group at the behest of Pakistan agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). During the search operation, three boxes of the arms and ammunition were recovered which were dropped through the drone at night from Treva village in Arnia. The Jammu police stated that three detonators, three remote-controlled IEDs, three bottles of explosives, one bundle of Cordtex wire, two Timer IEDs, one pistol, two magazines, six grenades and 70 rounds. The dropping of these huge arms and explosives depicts a major terrorist plan of the Pak-based terror outfit (LET/TRF). With the recovery of this huge consignment of arms and explosives, a major terror plot has been averted by the alert troops of Jammu and Kashmir police. The Police have registered an FIR no. 12/2022 under the relevant section and laws stand registered in police station Arnia and further investigation in the instant case is going on. Source: ANI

The Bomb Disposal Unit of police has recovered 31 bombs from an under-construction building at Uttara in the capital. Police cordoned off the building from Friday afternoon. The information came to police at 4 pm. At first a team of Uttara West police station rushed to the spot immediately. Later Bomb Disposal Unit was informed. They began their work aftermaths. It was known that the bombs were traced at an under-construction building at road number 13 of Uttara sector 10.  31 unexploded bombs were recovered from the spot. On November 12 on the day of Dhaka-18 parliamentary election incident of hurling bombs was happened outside of Maleka Banu Adarsha Bidyaniketan. Police filed a case in this regard. While investigating police on Friday arrested two people named Mamun and Suman. Police said that the bombs were recovered following the information delivered by them. DMP Additional Commissioner AKM Hafiz Akter said, so far 31 bombs were recovered from Uttara. The Bomb Disposal Unit has defused the bombs. AH         

Coronavirus death toll in Bangladesh rose to 2,238 on Thursday as 41 more people died from the virus infection during the last 24 hours.   Besides, total confirmed infections surged to 175, 494 as 3,360 new cases were detected after testing  15,632 samples in the period.   Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana came up with the disclosure at its daily health bulletin.   The health authorities also counted 3,706 recovery during the period, taking the total number of recovered patients to 84,544. Global Coronavirus Situation   The confirmed cases of coronavirus across the world  crossed 12,012, 125 while the death toll from Covid-19 climbed to 548,896 as of Thursday morning, according to the Centre for System Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University (JHU).   As per JHU data, Brazil has grabbed the second position after the US with 1,713,160 cases and 67,964 deaths while India taken the third position again with 742,417 cases. India has so far reported 20,642 deaths. Meanwhile, Russia counted the fourth highest cases -- 699,749 -- till date.   Among the countries, the US has been the worst-hit with the highest recorded deaths of 132,277 patients and about 3,053,328 confirmed cases.   Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year.   The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11. Source: UNB Read In Bangla Version AH

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir has said, a representative team of intelligence agency and central bank is going to leave for Manila on Monday night to recover the rest of money that was stolen from Bangladesh Bank reserve. He said this while declaring the monetary policy statement for the second half (January-June) of the current year at the Jahangir Alam Conference Hall of Bangladesh Bank on Monday. Fazle Kabir said, 1 crore 45 lakh 40 thousand dollars were brought back from the theft 8 crore 10 lakh dollars. Besides, bringing back of 50 million dollars was under process. He said, making return of more 12 million dollars from Philippines is at the final stage. Besides there is great development for bringing back more 6 million dollars and a team of CID and Bangladesh Bank is going to Philippines to recover this. A theft was occurred in the Bangladesh Bank reserve kept in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York trough fake message in February, 2016. Bangladesh managed to recover some of the money already. AH