Tk 12b project approved for export infrastructure development

A Tk 12-billion export infrastructure development project has been approved to reduce growing pressure of exports and imports on the Chittagong Seaport, reports BSS.brThe project, which includes an inland container depot (ICD) at Dhirashrom near Tongi, construction of double railway lines from Chittagong Port to Foujdarhat, and procurement of 10 railway engines and 120 flat wagons, has received the approval of the project committee of the Planning Commission.brThe process for approval of the project began in 2003. The construction work under the project could not begin by June 2008 as the total process was delayed. Now, the construction work will begin in November 2009 and will complete in 2014, Bangladesh Railway sources said.brAfter completion of the project, there will be a scope for handling 15 per cent of the containers in Chittagong through the ICD by 2016 and 30 per cent by 2026.brThe Dhirashrom ICD under the project will be the country's second ICD with a capacity of 3.54 TEUs (twenty equivalent units). The ICD will be constructed on 137 acres of land at a cost of Tk 5.0 billion. brThe country's first ICD was constructed at Kamalapur in the capital in 1987. Its capacity is 90,000 TEUs. Pressure is increasing on the ICD every year since its inception.brIn fiscal 2007-08, a total of 82,000 containers were handled in the ICD. But this number is only 10 per cent of the containers handled in the Chittagong Port.br