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New lease of life for Pangaon container terminal project

RAFIQ HASAN
After almost nine years, the government has revived the project for constructing an inland container terminal at Pangaon under Keraniganj upazila near Pagla for easing congestion at the Chittagong Port and traffic on the highways.
The project will be implemented at a cost of Tk 120 crore.
Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain along with other senior shipping ministry officials is expected to visit the project site tomorrow, sources in shipping ministry said.
The decision for constructing the container terminal was taken in 1995 during previous Khaleda led
government. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had laid the foundation stone of the project at Pangaon.
But no progress was made in the past nine years, as the Awami League government did not show much interest about it, the shipping ministry sources said.
Now the Ministry of Shipping has taken up the project once again due to regular container congestion at the Chittagong Port. The ministry at a meeting last week decided to build the terminal in the shortest possible time.
The terminal will be built jointly by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). The
export-import container will be transported from the terminal by river route.
Lighters would carry the imported container reducing congestion at the Chittagong Port and on the highways.
Private sector will be engaged for handling containers at the terminal while BIWTC will arrange or, if necessary, build ships for carrying containers from Chittagong and Mongla ports, according to the decision.
The shipping ministry sources said the government would float tender by November this year for appointing a construction firm for starting the construction of the
terminal.
"I hope the construction of the terminal would be completed by March 2006," Akbar Hossain told The Daily Star.
He said the shipping ministry will try to make the terminal operational from April 2006.
The terminal will have a capacity to handle around 1.60 lakh TEUs annually earning nearly Tk 40 crore annual profit.
The terminal will be built on 90 acres of land. A four and half kilometers link road would also be constructed for connecting the terminal with the nearest highway under the project, the source said.