TWO global port operators - Singapore's PSA and Saudi
Arabia's Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT)
- have been shortlisted to build Bay Terminal, a 12-metre draught facility near Chittagong port.
At the same time, RSGT and DP
World are on the priority list for operating the under-construction Patenga
Container Terminal, which will raise Chittagong port's container handling
capacity significantly.
The Bangladeshi government is
keen to enhance goods capacity of the country's prime seaport, which frequently
faces acute congestion.
"We are in talks with these
foreign companies. An agreement will be signed after the negotiation is
completed," a senior
shipping ministry official
said.
Bay Terminal will be built nearly
10 miles north of the estuary and will comprise one 1,500-metre multipurpose
terminal, one 1,225-metre container terminal and two 830-metre container
terminals. It will have 13 jetties and accommodate vessels of up to the 280
metres long. The
construction cost is estimated at US$2.5 billion.
Currently, vessels with a
9.5-metre draught can dock at Chittagong during high tide - Bay Terminal's location
nearer the sea will allow vessels to be able to berth independent of tides.
Sources say the government's Public-Private Partnership
Authority is in talks with PSA
Singapore on technical, financial, and legal issues. The Singaporean company
may be involved in capital dredging, building a breakwater in the bay and
building container terminals, except the multipurpose facility.
Several other companies, from
China, India, Korea, and the Middle East, have expressed interest in investing
in Bay Terminal construction, but until now PSA Singapore and RSGT are in pole
position, confirmed an official, reports London's
Loadstar.
Meanwhile, the government has
engaged the engineering corps of the Bangladesh Army for construction of the
Patenga Container Terminal, a 600-metre long facility with a back-up area of 26
acres and three berths with 9.5 metres of depth alongside. The $235 million
terminal be able to handle 360,000 TEU annually.
With RSGT and DP World on the
priority list, if successful, they would be the first foreign companies to
operate ports and terminals in Bangladesh.
Chittagong has a designed
handling capacity of 1.7 million TEU, but last year handled 3.1 million TEU.
Source : HKSG.
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