Japanese company Mitsui E&S has got the job of designing, manufacturing, supplying and installing container-handling equipment, terminal operation and security maintenance at the under-construction Matarbari deep-sea port in Chattogram.
The cabinet committee on government purchase at a meeting gave the green light to a proposal to do the entire work at Tk 7.994 billion.
Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali chaired Wednesday's purchase-committee meeting.
The Chittagong Port Authority is implementing the deep-sea port project at Matarbari with funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Once built, mother vessels carrying up to 8,200 twenty-foot equivalent unit containers and bulk carriers of nearly 70,000-deadweight tonnage will be able to take berth in the main jetties of the port.
The main navigation channel of the new seaport will have 18.7 metres of water draft.
At present, small feeder vessels carry containers and bulk cargoes to and from Chattogram port to regional transshipment ports in Singapore, Malaysia and Colombo for Bangladesh's external trade.
The cabinet meeting also approved procurement of 10,000 tonnes of sugar and 8,000 tonnes of lentil by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh to sell to the needy at subsidised rates.
Cabinet secretary Mahmudul Hossain Khan said the TCB will buy 10,000 tonnes of sugar from the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation under direct procurement method at Tk 1.6 billion.
Each kilogram of sugar cost the exchequer Tk 160 in this lot of procurement, he added.
Mr Khan said this while briefing the media after the meeting.
He said the TCB has been allowed to buy 8,000 tonnes of lentil from Agrigo Trading Pvt Ltd, India, at Tk 766.5 million with each kilo lentil costing Tk 100.80.
The meeting also approved the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) to buy 25,000 tonnes of rock phosphate from M/S Desh Trading Corporation, Dhaka, by spending Tk 945.1 million.
Each tonne of fertiliser will cost $342.89.
The BCIC will also buy 30,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid from M/S Agro Industrial Input, Dhaka, and M/S Desh Trading Corporation, Dhaka, at Tk 1.89 billion.
Each tonne of fertiliser will cost $342.89.
The minister also presided over a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs the same day.
The meeting approved a proposal in principle for implementing the 'Development of Container Terminal-01 of Payra Port under PPP Model' under the Public Private Purchase initiative.
It also endorsed a proposal to execute the 'Establishment of International Nurses and Midwives Skills Training Institute' also under the PPP initiative.
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