The Port of Singapore Authority has started feasibility study of the Bay Terminal, which will be built inside the bay enhancing its capacity to handle large vessels, officials say.
It has also appointed transaction advisory firm, legal firm, required consulting houses, and financial assessor, an official at the state-run Public Private Partnership Authority said.
The Chittagong Port Authority or CPA has short listed a number of companies for conducting another feasibility study of the proposed terminal.
The request for proposal for appointing a consultant is expected to be issued this month and the feasibility study may start in September.
"The CPA had aimed to appoint consultant by April, but the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted it," PPP authority's director general Faruque Ahmed told the FE.
The both sides will conduct feasibility study to have knowledge so that the negotiations can be held properly, he said.
The government is also contemplating engaging the Jeddah-based Red Sea Gateway Terminal in the construction and operations of the terminal considering the size of the work.
"It's a big infrastructure. One may not have the capacity to handle such a big task," said Mr Ahmed, who looks after the matter on behalf of the PPPA.
"Engaging more than one firms will lead to a competition between them to determine who can do better job and provide good services," he said adding otherwise a monopoly may occur.
Asked whether the CPA will do a portion of the terminal construction work, he said, it will be determined after the study is completed.
He said the core infrastructure components like road and rail links may be constructed by the CPA.
CPA chairman Rear Admiral S M Abul Kalam Azad told the FE there is an immense need for constructing the Bay Terminal to enhance the port's capacity for handling growing export-import trade.
"We are working on it," he said without elaborating.
The Bay Terminal will be able to handle vessels over 12-metre draft, nearly 10 miles north of the estuary and will comprise one 1,500-metre multipurpose terminal, one 1,225-metre container terminal, and an 830-metre container terminal.
It will have 13 jetties and be able to accommodate vessels up to the 280-metre length. The construction cost of the terminal is estimated at $2.5 billion.
In the Chittagong port jetties, presently vessels with 9.5-metre draft can berth during the tide period, but since the Bay Terminal will be built much inside the sea, vessels nearly 5,000 TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units) will be able to anchor in the jetties round the clock.
According to officials, the Singaporean agency may be entrusted with the tasks of carrying out capital dredging, building breakwater in the bay, and construct the container terminals.
Once built, they said, it will facilitate the country's export-import business.
syful-islam@outlook.com