Govt awaiting response from CONCOR

Syful Islam The government is awaiting a response from the Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR) about the terms and conditions under which the company would like to operate the Khanpur inland container terminal (ICT), sources said. The company has earlier expressed its interest to do this work. It had been requesting for long the government of Bangladesh to allowing it start container handling in the ICT with the existing facilities, the sources added. The Ministry of Shipping in February sought to know the terms and conditions from the CONCOR but it is yet to get any response. "The Indian state entity wanted to run the ICT on a trial basis. We wanted to know conditions about the proposed arrangement from it, but have not received any further documents from it," Shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Howlader told the FE Wednesday. Meantime, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) had floated a tender to appoint an operator for the ICT. It is still to take any decision on this. "After an amendment of the tender document, the BIWTA has recently floated the tender. The tender will be open soon," Mr Howlader said. When asked why terms and conditions have been sought from CONCOR instead of the ministry itself setting the same, the secretary said, "We wanted to know under what specific terms and conditions it would like to operate the container terminal." During the visit of Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma last April, the delegation had requested Bangladesh to expedite the procedures for allowing them to operate the Khanpur ICT and the Pangaon ICT. Of the two ICTs, Khanpur terminal in Narayanganj is now being operated by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) while the Pangaon ICT is under construction. The Khanpur ICT now handles mainly containers with cement clinkers and most of those consignments come from neighbouring India. The Khanpur ICT started operation in 1981, has the capacity to handle some 60,000 TEUS (twenty feet equivalent units) per year and during the last fiscal, it earned revenues worth Tk 36 million through unloading 1,100,000 MT of containers, BIWTA officials stated. Established on 9.36 acres of land, the ICT has one jetty of 18,200 sqft and two warehouses where unloading of containers is increasing by 30 to 40 per cent a year. The construction of Pangaon ICT in Keraniganj is yet to be completed, though the authorities concerned planned to start its full-fledged operation by the end of this year or early next year. After construction, the ICT will be operated by private sector. The ICT is being established on 60 acres of land, having the capacity to handle some 160,000 TEUs per year. It has one jetty with berthing facilities for two ships at a time.