After missing several deadlines, the latest of which was in July, the Pangaon inland container terminal on the bank of the Buriganga under Keraniganj upazila is yet to go operational because of the delays in importing container vessels.
The authorities concerned with building the terminal are the ministry of shipping, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA). They say the construction of the terminal has already been completed.
However, when asked about the tentative date of operation, the three bodies provided contradictory information.
The Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan on a visit to the terminal in June said: “The construction work of the terminal at Pangaon has already been completed and it will go into operation next month.”
The CPA and the BIWTA said it would not be possible to begin operations before August, due to the unavailability of container-carrying vessels.
Farhad Uddin Ahmed, secretary of the CPA said: “We are importing three vessels from China for the Pangaon Terminal, which will arrive at the end of July.”
“Work progress at the project is at 100%, and all construction work has already been completed. Hopefully it will start operations this August,” he said. BIWTA Executive Engineer Mizanur Rahman echoed Farhad’s reply.
The implementation period of the Tk1.7757bn terminal, jointly built by the BIWTA and the CPA, was July 2005 to June 2013.
The BIWTA provided the land while the CPA gave the financial support for the project, which had the Bureau of Research Testing and Consultation of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology as advisors.
Meanwhile, the terminal authorities said all facilities including the RCC jetty, the marshalling yard, office buildings, the gate house, the container-freight station workshop for repairing machineries, the 500km connection road and two RCC bridges have been built. In addition, a culvert has been constructed and container handling machinery has been installed.
Two container-filled vessels can be berthed at a time at its jetty. The 2,400 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) capacity terminal can handle 116,000TEU containers annually.
Of the total number of containers released from the Chittagong port, 70% travel to the Dhaka and Narayanganj area. Only 10% of these containers come by train while the rest are transported on land, which is more expensive and creates traffic congestion.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said the Pangaon container terminal was constructed to reduce traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, container congestion at the Chittagong port and the cost of transporting containers through river-routes. Vendors sell traditional Iftar delicacies at Old Dhaka’s Chowk Bazar on the first day of Ramadan on Thursday.
