CHATTOGRAM: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation of the Bay Container Terminal through a videoconferencing from Gano Bhaban in Dhaka on Thursday.
Construction work of the Bay Container Terminal (BCT) of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is set to start by the end of this month.
Initially, the CPA will construct a delivery yard of import containers and a truck terminal.
Port officials said Chittagong port faces container and ship congestion and the importers suffer a lot because of the shortage of lighter vessels, dilapidated roads in the port area and other reasons.
If the containers are shifted to the extended yard in the BCT, the importers will be able to take delivery of cargoes from that yard without any hazard. For that reason, a bus terminal will also be constructed there on an urgent basis, they said.
Earlier, Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), a private joint venture of the USA and Bangladesh, took a move to construct a private port at Patenga at the estuary of the Karnaphuli River and the Bay of Bengal.
ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, former mayor of Chittagong City Corporation, along with a section of employees and officials of the port and agitated people of the port city, strongly resisted the move and finally after obtaining an order from the High Court, Mohiuddin succeeded and the project was dropped.
At that time, Mohiuddin Chowdhury suggested construction of the Bay Terminal on the present site to enhance cargo handling in the Chittagong port. He published a full-page advertisement in different national and local dailies detailing on the feasibility of the Bay Terminal.
Initially, 888 acres of land will be acquired for the BCT within next six months while the rest land will be handed over for the project in phases. Besides 67 acres of land, another 621 acres of government khas land will be leased out to the CPA on long term basis.
Construction of the yard in the initial stage alongside the truck terminal is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 while work of the main port (Bay Terminal) will continue alongside after getting the rest land from the administration. The land acquisition from private owners was delayed, but the government khas land will be available after due formalities are completed, they said.
Sources said 67 acres of land were handed over to the Chittagong Port Authority on Tuesday last by Chattogram district administration.
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