Building the planned multibillion-dollar Bay Terminal in Chattagram takes new nudge in the changed political context as government authorities are set to evaluate progress and set new course of action.
Officials have said the ministry of shipping will sit with all parties concerned next week for the stocktaking and deciding what it takes to kick-start the construction process with local and foreign financing.
The ministry officials, including the shipping adviser of the incumbent interim government, will sit with the Chittagong seaport officials, the probable local and foreign investors, officials from the Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA), the transaction adviser, and people concerned, they added.
Local and foreign investors are intent on investing some US$8.0 billion in the project for construction of the terminal near the Halishahar coast of the Bay of Bengal.
The PPPA appointed UK-based Ernst & Young LLP as transaction adviser in 2022 for the Bay Terminal. However, the company has yet to submit reports to the authority, sources said.
As such, the interim-government has decided to evaluate the progresses the project made so far and what steps can be taken to expedite the project implementation in the changed political and financial perspectives.
Suraiya Pervin Shelley, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Shipping, told the FE the ministry would convene a meeting to discuss and take decision about the shipping-terminal project.
"We will set a strategy on how the project will go forward in the changed political situation," she said.
This June, the World Bank granted a loan package worth $650 million to finance the dredging of the main access channel and construction of breakwater for the Bay Terminal.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) in May announced that foreign and local companies came forward to put in some $8.0 billion in the terminal which will help enhance Chittagong port's annual handling capacity by 5.0 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).
Of the financiers, AD Ports Group wants to invest $1.0 billion in construction of multipurpose terminal, while PSA Singapore and DP World are interested to invest $1.5 billion each separately in the two container terminals.
Moreover, local conglomerate East Coast Group and its foreign partners want to invest $3.5 billion in the liquid bulk terminal. The Bay Terminal will have at least 12-meter water draft allowing 300-meter-long ships with 5,000-TEU-container-carrying capacity to take berth in the jetties any time in day and night. The terminal will be built on 2,500 acres of land, according to officials concerned.
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