Staff Reporter:
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved Taka 13,525.57-crore Bay Terminal Marine Infrastructure Development Project (BTMIDP) to conduct related works for constructing Bay Terminal in Chattogram.
The approval came from the ECNEC meeting held at the NEC Conference Room with ECNEC Chair-person and Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in the chair.
The meeting has approved a total of 16 projects involving an estimated cost of Taka 24,247.24 crore. Of the total project cost, Taka 3001.34 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh, Taka 16,719.73 crore as project loan while Taka 4,526.17 crore from the concerned organization’s own fund.
Of the approved 16 projects, 13 are new while three are revised projects.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Adviser Professor Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said that there were discussions for long for undertaking the Bay Terminal project. At long last, the project has been approved and the necessary project works would start soon.
He said that considering the growing business operations of the next 15 to 20 years and the geopolitical importance, the necessary facilities at the Chattogram Port have to be increased.
The Planning Adviser informed that following separate MoUs signed with the PPP Authority, the Ter-minal-1 of the Bay Terminal will be constructed by the Enterprise of Singapore while the Terminal-2 will be constructed by the DP World of UAE.
Out of the total project cost of Taka 13,525.57 crore, the World Bank’s Taka 9,333 crore loan support would help Bangladesh invest in infrastructure for developing the Bay Terminal deep seaport, which will significantly improve Bangladesh’s global trade competitiveness and reduce import and export costs by increasing port operational efficiency and mobilizing private investment.
The Bay Terminal Marine Infrastructure Development Project will construct a 6-km climate-resilient breakwater to protect the harbor from the force of waves, current, and extreme weather.
It will also carry out dredging of the port basin, entrance, and access channels. The new, modern Bay Terminal, to be operated by leading international terminal operators, will accommodate larger size ves-sels, such as panamax vessels, and substantially decrease vessel turnaround time.
Currently, the Chattogram Port – which is the maritime gateway for over 90% of Bangladesh’s interna-tional trade volume and 98% of its container traffic – can only receive small feeder vessels during lim-ited hours of the day.
Moreover, the project will mobilize private investment for the development of container terminals.
The World Bank investment along with the government funding will bolster investor confidence and contribute to mitigating risks associated with the overall Bay Terminal Development. Furthermore, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the IFC is considering investing in one of the proposed private sector led terminal.
The Bay Terminal, located in the Anandangar/Sandwip channel, west of the Chittagong port and close to existing road and rail links to Dhaka, is expected to handle 36 percent of Bangladesh’s container vol-umes.
Over one million people, half of whom women, are expected to directly benefit from improved access to sustainable transport services, including shipping companies, business communities, importers, exporters, and freight forwarders.
The other projects approved in the meeting are: Multi-sector to deal with the Rohingya crisis on an emergency basis (2nd revised) with an additional cost of Taka 394.19 crore, Bangladesh Sustainable Re-covery, Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (B-STRONG) with Taka 1,909 crore, Chatto-gram Metropolitan Sewerage Project (1st Phase) (1st revised) with an additional cost of Taka .01 crore, Livable and Inclusive Cities for All (LICA) Project with Taka 74.60 crore, Chattogram Water Supply Development Project with Taka 3,921.42 crore.
The other projects approved in the meeting are: Project for the Improvement of Equipment for Air Pol-lution Monitoring with Taka 103.35 crore, Bangladesh Sustainable Recovery, Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (B-STRONG)-Agricultural System Restoration Component with Taka 260.22 crore, Bangladesh Sustainable Recovery, Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (B-STRONG) (BWDB) with around Taka 599.72 crore, Technical Support to Sustainable and Resilient Investment to-wards Agriculture Sector Transformation Program of Bangladesh with around Taka 53.14 crore, Green Railway Transport Preparatory Technical Assistance with Taka 93.51 crore, Drilling of Two Deep Ex-ploratory Wells at Titas and Bakhrabad Fields with Taka 798 crore, Strengthening of Excavation Capaci-ty of Geological Survey of Bangladesh with Taka 112.78 crore, Strengthening Social Protection for Im-proved Resilience, Inclusion and Targeting (SSPIRIT) with Taka 904.17 crore, Secondary Education Sector Investment Program (CESIP) (4th Revised) with zero additional cost and Project Preparation Advance (PPA) under Financial Sector Support Project-II (FSSP-II) with Taka 87.10 crore.
In this ECNEC meeting, the project for drilling of two deep exploratory wells at Titas and Bakhrabad Fields were approved for the 1st time during the interim government’s tenure through PPS software.
Besides, the ECNEC meeting approved the time extension of two projects.
Apart from these, the ECNEC meeting was also apprised about five projects which were approved earli-er by the Planning Adviser.
Advisers concerned attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and secretaries con-cerned were present.
