A move gets underway to hire an operator to operate Chattogram seaport's New-mooring Container Terminal (NCT) through open bidding as a directly appointed private firm's long reign nears the end.
Sources say the latest-renewed term of agreement between Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Saif Powertec Ltd is ending soon. And the authority now wants to operate the terminal by appointing next operator through open-tender method (OTM) instead of direct-purchase method (DPM) previously pursued.
The CPA recently sent a proposal to the ministry of shipping for approval to float tender soon under OTM to appoint a new operator, they add.
Shipping Ministry officials have said they are examining the proposal before giving a decision.
The current operator, Saif Powertec Ltd, has been operating the NCT since 2007. An agreement extended last time for six months through direct hiring will expire on January 7 next.
Port officials say the previous government had wanted to lease out the terminal to a foreign operator under government-to-government deal. To this end, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Authority had been tasked to the responsibility of discussion with Dubai-based DP World's authority.
They say appointing a foreign operator for the NCT was last government's plan, especially of Salman F Rahman, the then private-sector adviser to the deposed prime minister.
However, now, with an interim government having taken office in August following an uprising, the move has slowed, and "no visible progress in sight to appoint a foreign operator".
As such, they say, the CPA recently sought finance ministry approval for floating tender to appoint a new operator to run the terminal for handling Bangladesh's external trade.
Spokesperson for the CPA Omar Faruk told the FE that there was no progress regarding appointment of a foreign operator for the terminal.
He said the port authority sent a proposal to the ministry and now "waiting ministry's approval to float tender under Open Tender Method" for appointing a new operator for the terminal.
"We can't keep terminal operations shut even a minute for appointing a new operator," he said about the exigency.
"So we have been continuing works under direct-purchase method with the current operator. In this regard, we had signed deal with Saif Powertec Ltd each time for a period of six months at existing tariffs," Mr Faruk elaborates on the so-long pursued practice.
He said the CPA was now waiting for ministry's approval, and once a new operator is appointed, the deal with the present operator will be cancelled and the terminal will be handed over to the new operator.
The NCT has five berths where a vessel with a maximum 186-meter length and deep draft of 9.5 meters can berth.
The terminal has container-storage yard of 292,287-square meters for backup operation with the facility for 700 reefer plugs for the frozen container and has a total of handling capacity of 1.19 million twenty-foot containers annually.
syful-islam@outlook.com