The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has accepted only one proposal from a Japanese company for a project to develop a multimodal transport hub at Kamalapur railway station under the public-private partnership (PPP) modality.
Two more proposals from a separate Japanese company for the development of another multimodal transport hub at the Airport railway station and an inland container depot (ICD) at Dhirashram in Gazipur, however, were rejected at the evaluation stage, sources said.
The BR has already informed the authorities concerned of its decision and requested them to pick some other Japanese companies for the implementation of these two projects, they added.
"There are gaps between the perceptions of the Japanese companies and the BR," said an official.
In March last, the PPP Authority and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan held their third joint platform meeting on the three projects to find Japanese companies willing to invest in the country under the government-to-government (G-2-G) PPP modality.
Following the meeting, the BR received the three proposals from two Japanese companies.
In the first such meeting held in June 2017, the BR has placed several projects, three of which were selected by the Japanese companies. A memorandum of cooperation was also signed at the meeting.
During the second joint platform meeting, a sub-working group was formed with the Japanese companies to go ahead with the proposals.
After the last joint meeting, several internal meetings were also held to evaluate the proposals and found that the proposal from Kajima Corporation for developing Dhaka-Kamalapur Railway Station Multi-Modal Hub is acceptable, officials said.
Preparatory work on drawing up the master plan for the hub is now underway, they said, adding that Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology is assisting the BR in this regard.
Sources said as the two other projects are equally important for the BR, it also requested the MLIT to select other Japanese companies to speed up the process of negotiation for their implementation.
Without shifting the ICD from Kamalapur Station to Dhirarshram, it would not be possible to develop the multimodal transport hub at Kamalapur, they added.
According to sources, Sojitz Corporation put forward the two other proposals which are somewhat 'impractical'.
They said the matter of rejection of the proposals will be discussed during the next joint platform meeting likely to be held early next year.
The Dhaka-Kamalapur Multi-Modal Transport Hub would be developed on 256 acres of land with facilities for all modes of transport, including metro rail, high-speed train and bus terminal.
And the multi-modal transport hub at the Airport railway station would cover 20 acres of land, the sources said.
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