Deal on a long-awaited $335-million Chinese loan for construction of two jetties to upgrade Mongla seaport is likely to be signed within this month, officials say.
A framework agreement was signed during the Prime Minister's China visit last month to this effect.
"We are now working on the signing of the loan deal," a senior official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) told The Financial Express on Sunday.
The official said there are some specific procedural steps "that we are now completing for the signing of the agreement".
In the first week of February 2025, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the Tk 40.68-billion project for expansion and modernisation of Mongla port facilities.
Later, the Mongla Port Authority (MPA) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in late March signed contract for implementation of the project.
The ERD sent the loan application to China late April last year. However, since then, the approval for the loan application had remained stalled.
The situation changed after Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visited China late last month. During his visit, Bangladesh and China signed a framework agreement on the Mongla-port project.
A joint communiqué issued after the Prime Minister's visit mentioned the two sides agreed to jointly advance the Mongla Port Facilities Modernization and Expansion Project and the development of the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Chattagram.
Sources have said recently the Ministry of Shipping in a letter to the Finance Division requested taking necessary steps for inclusion of the project in the Annual Development Programme of the current fiscal year (2026-27) and allocating an economic code in favour of the project.
"We have learnt from the ERD that the framework agreement under the project has already been signed. Moreover, there is a possibility of signing the loan agreement for the project within this month," the letter mentioned.
The 'Expansion and Modernisation of Mongla Port Facilities' was listed among the 27 development projects that China pledged to fund by signing an umbrella deal back in 2016 during its president Xi Jinping's Dhaka visit.
The Mongla Port Authority had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the CCECC in August 2021 which latter submitted its financial bid and technical proposal on January 28, 2023.Financial planning services
The project is aimed at construction of two container jetties with a total length of 368 meters, 87,600-square-meter loaded container yard, 34,170-square-meter empty container yard, and 4,260-square-meter hazardous cargo-handling yard.
Moreover, four gantry cranes, seven rubber-tyred gantry cranes and 33 other pieces of jetty-related equipment will be bought under the project.
The two new jetties will enhance Mongla port's container-handling capacity by 394,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per annum.
syful-islam@outlook.com
