The Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of Railway are at loggerheads over acceptance of a proposal of a British firm to construct a rail link between Dhaka and Payra sea port, overlapping the railway's Padma bridge rail link project.
Sources said the Payra Port Authority under the Ministry of Shipping short-listed DP Rail of the UK for its offer to establish a more than 200-kilometre long Dhaka-Barisal-Payra rail link with foreign direct investment (FDI).
But a conflicting situation arose as the Bangladesh Railway (BR) under the Ministry of Railway rejected the proposal and advised the Shipping Ministry to work with the firm to construct a railway line from Bhanga to Payra Port.
As the BR has already completed commercial negotiation with the China Railway Group Limited to establish a single-track railway line up to Jessore from Dhaka via the under-construction Padma bridge, officials said it recommended engaging the DP Rail to construct the rest of the track fromBhanga to Payra through Jessore to avoid overlapping.
However, the Shipping Ministry is interested to construct another track from Dhaka to Payra along the BR's planned railway track.
Sources said there is also a conflict between the two ministries as the Railway Ministry has considered the DP Rail's proposal as unsolicited one.
According to the Shipping Ministry, the DP Rail was short-listed from among six interested firms which submitted their expression of interest sought in August last year to establish rail connectivity with the Payra port as part of its 19 components.
But sources said the DP Rail was the lone company among the six firms offering to construct the track with FDI as per the EoI requirement.
None of the five firms from China, India and Hong Kong proposed FDI.
Judging by the company profile, experience in doing such work, technical capabilities and the financial proposal, the evaluation committee of the Shipping Ministry recommended signing of a non-binding memorandum of understanding between the Railway Ministry and the UK firm.
The DP Rail offered to establish a 280-kilometre double-gauge rail link from Dhaka to Payra Bandar along with four inland container depots (ICD) in Dhaka at a cost of US$ 7.5 billion in investment.
But, sources said, the BR refused to sign the MoU last year as the proposal was an unsolicited one.
It, however, advised the Shipping Ministry to go for a feasibility study on the project under the PPP Policy and Strategy for Unsolicited Proposal 2014 saying that it would a huge investment.
 Later, a committee was formed after an inter-ministerial meeting on December 03. But the two ministries are yet to reach an amicable solution. Another meeting scheduled for August 03 did not take place.
   smunima@yahoo.com
Shipping, Rly ministries yet to iron out overlapping
Munima Sultana | Published: August 13, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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