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Bidding for New Mooring terminal now depends on shipping ministry

Dwaipayan Barua, Ctg
The future of a bidding process to appoint a private operator for New Mooring Container Terminal at the Chittagong Port now depends on the decision from the shipping ministry.
However, the bidding process is already halted by a recent directive from a review panel of the Central Procurement Technical Unit(CPTU).
The ministry is also taking preparations on how to deal with the CPTU directive legally.
Though the process for preparing the bidding documents started in February 2001, the terminal having five berths could not be made operational as no operator
could be appointed till date.
The construction of the terminal was complete in 2007.
Once the terminal is fully operational, the capacity and productivity of the port will almost double, said analysts.
Five international and local firms submitted their bids on August 30 to operate and manage the terminal on a supply-operate-transfer basis.
But the offers could not be opened as the CPTU review panel on August 29 asked the port authority not to take any step following appeals made by two international bidders who brought allegation of irregularities in the bidding.
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The review panel in two separate orders on September 11 and September 17 asked the port authority to cancel the bidding process that started in June.
The panel also asked the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) to start a re-tendering process, retaining the list of four pre-qualified firms originally selected in line with terms and conditions of the prequalification documents prepared in 2008.
The shipping ministry in the last two and a half years directed the CPA to change and relax several terms and conditions in the original bidding documents.
A CPA official said the ministry is now discussing with legal advisers to face the CPTU orders.
CPA Chairman Rear Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed said they sent a letter to the ministry seeking its decision.
"The ministry is the authority to take a decision on the container terminal. We have not yet opened the tender box due to the CPTU orders. And we are waiting for the decision from the ministry,” said the CPA chairman.
If the port authority does not go by the CPTU orders, any of the two aggrieved bidders could go to court, which would further delay the bidding process, said another port official, asking not to be named.
He said everything now depends on the ministry.
The CPA chairman said they expect to get a deci-