Bangladesh's interim Gov to review deep seaport project

Dhaka: The interim caretaker government is likely to revive the deep sea port megaproject, which it had earlier suspended because of the huge investment required for its implementation.
The government shelved the plan to construct a deep sea port in Sonadia Island in the Bay of Bengal on July 30.

‘We have started procedures to revive the project,’ said an official of the shipping ministry, adding that the move was initiated again as India and Myanmar recently announced that they would conduct feasibility studies to construct deep sea ports in their territories after Bangladesh’s decision to postpone the megaproject.

Official sources said the cabinet committee on economic affairs would review the project in its next meeting on September 11 and might decide to go ahead with second phase of the feasibility study which has remained suspended from July.

‘We think the construction of a deep sea port by Bangladesh could serve the region’s growing container and cargo business,’ said the official.

The BNP-Jamaat government in 2005 initiated the process to build the deep sea port to ease the growing pressure on Chittagong Port in handling containers and cargoes.

An amount of Tk 6 crore has already been spent for carrying out the first phase of the techno-economic feasibility study conducted by Pacific Consultants International, a Japanese firm appointed by the government in 2006 for carrying out the feasibility study at a cost of Tk 10 crore.

In May a technical committee, formed by the government, recommended Sonadia Island as the best site for the construction of the proposed deep sea port, which will need the huge investment of Tk 42,000 crore and will be completed in three phases by 2055.

The technical committee selected Sonadia as the most suitable site after considering factors such as the quality of land, distance from the sea, exposure to earthquake and seaquake, environmental aspects and access to utility services

‘The cost of land development will be low, siltation and sedimentation are negligible, manoeuvring of ships will be easier and further expansion of the port can be done in both directions if it is built in Sonadia,’ said the committee’s report.