MoU readied for building deep-sea port by Chinese co

The government has prepared a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aiming to award the job of building the deep seaport in Sonadia by a Chinese company, sources said.
The MoU may be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Beijing visit from June 06 to June 11, sources said.
Chinese government's designated company, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), is going to be awarded the job.
Shipping secretary Syed Monjurul Islam and a general manager of CHEC will sign the MoU on behalf of their respective sides.
According to the MoU, the CHEC will arrange soft loan from Chinese government to fund construction of the first phase of the port. Besides, it will form a consortium to carry out construction of the billion dollar infrastructure project.
In this case, the CHEC will either arrange General Concessional Loan (GCL) or Preferential Buyer's Credit (PBC) of the Exim Bank of China based on negotiations with the government of Bangladesh (GoB).
Bangladesh will employ an internationally reputed and well experienced consultancy firm to supervise the construction work of the port.
Sources said the CHEC in its proposal wanted to operate the port alongside financing and construction of the port. However, the GoB officials have deleted the provision of operation of the port from the MoU document.
Officials said awarding the construction job of deep seaport to a Chinese company was discussed in various stages during the last couple of weeks after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Beijing visit was confirmed and construction work of Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) was awarded to Chinese company.
Various individuals and institutions also resorted to hectic lobbying for awarding the construction work of deep seaport to a Chinese company.  
Sources said the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) had submitted its proposal to the government in 2012 and made presentation before a high-powered committee at the Prime Minister's Office over a year back. Now the company is going to be awarded the job as it has been found to be competent and has experience of the same.
Before that, four Chinese government-owned companies expressed interest to construct and fund the deep seaport in Bangladesh alongside some other foreign governments and private companies from the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, India, Denmark and South Korea.
The four Chinese companies are: China Merchants Holdings (International) Company Ltd, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), China Communications construction Company Ltd (CCCC), and China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd (CCEC).
According to a feasibility study report carried by the Pacific Consultants International (PCI) of Japan, the seaport at the first stage will have five international standard jetties with the capacity to handle a total of 704.01 million tonnes of containers a year. The construction cost was then estimated at Tk 600 billion.