[🇧🇩] Sea Ports/Air Ports/River Ports/Bridges/Mega Projects

[Saif]

Chattogram Port surpasses FY24 container handling rates despite multiple setbacks

With 15 days remaining in the 2024-25 fiscal year, container handling at Chattogram Port has surpassed the total volume handled in the previous year, overcoming the dollar crisis, LC complications, and floods. In FY25, a total of over 3.17 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of import and e

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Chattogram Port surpasses FY24 container handling rates despite multiple setbacks

bdnews24.com
Published :
Jun 16, 2025 22:33
Updated :
Jun 16, 2025 22:33

With 15 days remaining in the 2024-25 fiscal year, container handling at Chattogram Port has surpassed the total volume handled in the previous year, overcoming the dollar crisis, LC complications, and floods.

In FY25, a total of over 3.17 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) of import and export containers have been handled at Bangladesh’s main seaport.

In comparison, the total container handling in FY24 stood at over 3.16 million TEUs. Precisely speaking, that is 3,089 more containers handled this fiscal year, with two weeks to spare.

In FY23, the port handled 3 million TEUs.

A port official told bdnews24.com that despite disruptions caused by the July Uprising, prolonged floods, extended Eid holidays, a customs officers’ work strike, and a transport strike, this year’s container volume has already surpassed the previous fiscal year.

If the current trend continues, the handling volume may reach 3.3 million TEUs by the end of the fiscal year, according to port authorities.

This drastic improvement has been credited to infrastructural changed in the port, including automated services, the introduction of e-gate passes, and modernisation of the container operating system.

Enhanced cooperation from port users and faster cargo clearance have also contributed to the port’s increased productivity.

Captain Ahmed Amin Abdullah, Member (Harbour & Marine) of Chattogram Port, said that “Despite various challenges, we handled more containers by the 15th of June this fiscal year than in the previous one. With 15 more days to go, we hope to set a new record.”

He added, “The current level of progress at the port is the result of combined efforts from the staff and port users. We hope the handling rate will keep going upward for the remainder of the fiscal year.”​

 

[Saif]

Project worth Tk 46.62b up for ECNEC approval

Another hefty sum of Tk 31.74 billion is to be invested over the next two years in maintenance dredging along the 75-kilometre channel of the Payra Port, which continuously faces navigability challenges for its distance from the sea estuary. Additionally, two hopper dredgers will be procured at

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

RECURRENT PAYRA PORT DREDGING COSTS HUGE SUMS
Project worth Tk 46.62b up for ECNEC approval
Steps a must-have to minimise financial losses by maximising port's utilisation: Economist

JAHIDUL ISLAM
Published :
Jun 21, 2025 00:48
Updated :
Jun 21, 2025 00:48

Another hefty sum of Tk 31.74 billion is to be invested over the next two years in maintenance dredging along the 75-kilometre channel of the Payra Port, which continuously faces navigability challenges for its distance from the sea estuary.

Additionally, two hopper dredgers will be procured at a cost of Tk 14.0 billion for regular maintenance dredging to maintain navigability in the long term to keep the seaport operational, officials say.

In this regard, the Ministry of Shipping has proposed a project titled 'Maintenance Dredging of Rabnabad Channel of Payra Port and Procurement of Hopper Dredger'.

The estimated aggregate cost of the project is Tk 46.62 billion, which will cover dredging operations, dredger procurement and associated activities, said Planning Commission sources.

"The Physical Infrastructure Division of the Planning Commission reviewed the proposal at a project-evaluation committee (PEC) meeting Wednesday and decided to forward it to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval, subject to the incorporation of certain recommendations," a senior planning official said.

Two more development projects -- one of Tk 1.61 billion for the digitisation of the Payra Port and another of Tk 4.90 billion to provide housing facilities for the port's officers and staff -- are also scheduled to be reviewed at two separate PEC meetings within this month, he added.

A total of Tk 53.12 billion needs to be spent on the Payra Port over the next three years beyond the scope of the existing projects.

The entire cost is to be borne by the government from its own funds if the three projects receive the seal of final approval.

Officials have said the Payra Port Authority previously spent Tk 72.89 billion between November 2020 and December last year under a development project and a revenue programme for capital dredging and channel maintenance to support operations at the yet-under-construction port on the southern shore of the Bay of Bengal.

Stakeholders and experts are questioning the justification for the new dredging project, as the port channel remains non-navigable despite the substantial expenditure on previous dredging efforts.

The PEC meeting also recommended including a detailed breakdown of the port's revenue and expenditure, along with projected earnings from the proposed dredging, before the project is submitted for the final all-clear, officials said.

Earlier in March this year, Planning Adviser of the interim government Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud at a press briefing had termed the Payra Port a "poison for the economy," citing its high maintenance costs and limited utility.

He said the port would need two dredgers every year to remain operational, mainly to support coal imports for a nearby power plant.

"Payra is far from being a seaport. At best, it is a wharf for small vessels," he said, adding that a large sum has already been spent and the project's viability is now in question.

He criticised the port as a wrong public investment at several meetings, including the post-budget briefing arranged by the finance ministry.

However, he suggested following a site visit that the port could be developed as an alternative to Chattogram and Mongla ports in case either is disrupted by natural disasters or geopolitical tensions, a Planning Commission official said.

The new dredging project, proposed by the Ministry of Shipping and to be implemented by the Payra Port Authority, aims to maintain a 10.5-metre draft over a 75-kilometre stretch of the Rabnabad channel and procure two trailing suction hopper dredgers.

Officials say the goal is to enable safe navigation of Panamax-class commercial vessels with a capacity of 40,000 deadweight tonnes (DWT).

The latest project also raises broader questions about public investment priorities at a time when Bangladesh faces growing fiscal pressure, sluggish revenue mobilisation, and dwindling development aid.

In the past, many development projects saw unusually high spending and numerous unnecessary initiatives were taken, says Professor Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

He notes that the economy is now facing the consequences of those mistakes.

Besides, he says, significant investments have been made, and the port is already in limited use. If it is not kept operational, all that money will be wasted.

He emphasises that the remaining port infrastructure must be built in a "highly cost-effective way, and steps should be taken to minimise financial losses by maximising the port's utilisation".

Spending nearly Tk 50 billion on dredging when health, education, and climate-adaptation sectors remain underfunded reflects misplaced priorities, said a budget analyst at a local think- tank.

"We are treating symptoms, not causes. Why is there no long-term siltation-management strategy or sustainable port-development plan yet?"

Even government documents showed that if maintenance dredging did not continue beyond April 2024, the channel would begin to silt up again, rendering previous capital investments futile.

The port's dredging history is long--and costly. Since its inception in 2013 as a flagship project to spur economic development in the backwater southern region, it has relied heavily on expensive capital and maintenance dredging.

The initial dredging contract - awarded controversially in a public-private partnership (PPP) model to Belgian firm Jan De Nul - was later converted into a government-funded project amid disputes and financing complications.

The capital-dredging component alone reportedly cost over Tk 68.75 billion.

The port authority implemented another project titled 'Emergency Maintenance Dredging of the Rabnabad Channel (Inner and Outer Channels)' between November 2020 and June 2022 at a cost of Tk 4.13 billion.

Despite a Tk 72.88-billion investment, the port still lacks in-house dredging capacity and dredgers must be purchased now to keep the channel navigable--a gap that critics argue should have been addressed in the original project.​

 

[Saif]

Ministry opts to hand over New Mooring Container Terminal to CPA

The authorities have decided in principle to let the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) take charge of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) for six months amid opposition from major political parties to appointing a foreign operator.

www.thedailystar.net

Ministry opts to hand over New Mooring Container Terminal to CPA

Currently, a private operator is running the New Mooring Container Terminal, the largest terminal at Chattogram port. Its contract will expire on July 6. Photo: RAJIB RAIHAN

The authorities have decided in principle to let the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) take charge of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) for six months amid opposition from major political parties to appointing a foreign operator.

Currently, a private operator is running the NCT, the largest terminal at Chattogram port. Its contract will expire on July 6.

With the deadline nearing, the Ministry of Shipping held a meeting last Wednesday where it decided in principle to hand over operations to the CPA, according to an official document.

Subsequently, the CPA has sought final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs through the shipping ministry.

In a letter, the CPA pointed to the contract's looming expiry, the lengthy process of selecting a new operator, and the need to keep external trade running smoothly. It urged swift approval in the national interest.

The NCT has been making headlines in recent months over who would run it.

The government said that bringing in a well-known foreign operator would increase the overall efficiency of the port.

But parties including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and left-leaning groups oppose the idea, arguing that giving control of a key terminal to a foreign firm would endanger national security and sovereignty.

Port workers have also been protesting, saying the move would make little economic sense as the terminal is "profitable and fully functional".

Built at a cost of Tk 2,000 crore, the 950-metre terminal was completed in 2007 by the CPA.

It has five jetties — four for ocean-going container ships and one for smaller vessels that connect to Pangaon port in Dhaka.

The Daily Star approached top CPA officials for comment, but to no avail.

CPA spokesperson and acting secretary Md Nasir Uddin did not answer repeated phone calls.​

 

[Bilal9]

Dhaka Civil Aviation Air Traffic Controllers Video