The government has planned to establish underground railway network in the capital with the financial assistance of the World Bank for safer and faster movement of commuters.
“It will be a dream project like the Padma Bridge,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal after the Ecnec meeting yesterday.
Quoting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who chaired the meeting, the minister said: “The premier has directed the Planning Commission to build the underground rail alongside the under-construction Metro Rail.”
Saying that the government would carry out a feasibility study soon, Kamal said: “World Bank’s visiting Senior Vice-President Kyle Peters told me that the bank will finance the underground rail project.”
Earlier in the day, the Ecnec meeting approved eight development projects involving Tk6,387 crore including a Tk1,128.43 crore project titled “Developing Infrastructures and Facilities for Payra Deep Seaport Operation.”
Of the total outlay, Tk4,197 crore will come from the government exchequer, Tk2,165 crore from foreign assistance while the rest from the organisation’s own funds.
The activities of the deep seaport would begin by December. For this reason, the government would procure and built necessary warehouse, crane, pilot boat, tag boat, vessel and survey boats.
The minister said that the port would be operational in full swing by 2023.
Once the Payra port is built, the cost of cargo handling would be reduced to three times, he said. “By 2028, a total of 40 million tonnes of coal will be unloaded through this port. An LNG terminal will also be set up here.”
Under the project, a 5.60-kilometre four-lane road from Rajpara to Payra port would be constructed to establish link with the national highway.
The high priority project of the government is situated on the west bank of Ramnabad channel at Kalapara upazila in Patuakhali as the channel’s outer part has a 16-21 meter depth that would allow high-draft vessel to move easily.
At present, 95% of the cargo are being handled by the Chittagong Port alone, but expansion and development of the port is appeared impossible due to establishment of residential and industrial infrastructures.
Moreover, the Poshur River is losing its navigability for incessant siltation that is creating obstruction to vessel movement. So, the Payra Port has a huge potentiality to be another vibrant port of the country in the near future.
About the abandoned Sonadia deep seaport project, the minister said that another deep seaport would be constructed near Sonadia, at Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar. In future, it would be expanded towards Sonadia Island, he said.
