Authorities are yet to commence the physical works of the Matarbari Port Development Project in about five years of the inception of the project in January 2020 despite a total spending of Tk710.45 crore.
Ministry of Shipping wants to extend the duration of the project, important for the country's foreign trade, by three years as the possibility of completing the project by December 2026 as scheduled is over.
The ministry has sent the second revision proposal of the project to the Planning Commission to extend the period till December 2029. At the same time, it has been proposed to increase the cost of the project by about 36.92%.
Officials of the commission said that the proposal of the shipping ministry is going to be presented at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) to be held on Monday (7 October) for final approval.
The meeting is scheduled to be held chaired by Dr Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor of the interim government at his office.
Officials said that the Ecnec approved the project in March 2020 with an estimated cost of Tk17, 777 crore. The Chattogram Port Authority and the Roads and Highways Department were supposed to implement the project by December 2026.
Ministry of Shipping proposed to spend Tk24,381.40 crore to implement the project.
Approval of the proposal by the Ecnec would allow the authority to increase the project cost by Tk6,574 crore, which is about 37% higher than the initial project cost.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will provide Tk17,969.58 crore, about 74% of the project cost as loan support. The government will provide Tk3,544.62 crore while the remaining amount is to be spent from the own sources of the implementing agencies.
The officials said that the proposed port will have two separate 300-metre and 460-metre-long terminals where ships with 8,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers – four times higher than the Chattogram Port – can dock because of the 16-meter draft at the port channel.
At present, ships greater than 190-metre length and 9.5-metre draft cannot dock at the jetties at Chattogram Port, forcing the authorities to carry containers by feeder vessels to and from mother vessels.
The aims of the project are increasing the cargo handling capacity of Bangladesh and reducing the pressure on the Chittagong port by building a deep sea port at Cox's Bazar Matarbari, to meet the future international trade needs.
The cost of the project is to be increased due to several reasons including the rise of expenditure due to changes in the foreign exchange rate, increase in CD-VAT, port charges, land acquisition, contingency and consultancy services.
Officials said that the detailed design of the project found a demand for the construction of 16.53 km of roads and highways instead of 27.518 km and the amount of bridge construction of 10.670 km instead of 7.054 km.
The change in the scope of works pushed an increase of cost worth Tk674.64 crore, they added.
