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The construction of Bay Container Terminal (BCT) of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is getting delayed due to slow pace in the project's land acquisition process following filing of cases by the parties concerned.
As much as 456 acres of land out of the 674 acres, demanded by CPA in its first proposal, are under litigation. A number of people have filed cases against each other in different local courts, claiming the ownership of these lands.
As a result, the most important and biggest infrastructure project of the port is facing unnecessary delay.
However, CPA's second proposal for 146 acres of land is free from such legal complications, said sources in the district administration connected with land acquisition process.
They also said the local district administration sent proposal to Ministry of Land to give on lease 674 acres of land in North Halishahar, South Halishahar and Middle Halishahar moujas under Double Mooring and Port police stations for the proposed BCT.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) of Chittagong Md Delwar Hossain said there is no problem in acquisition of 146 acres of land as per the second proposal, as the ministry and the land management committee approved it. The land will be acquired soon after completion of the necessary procedure for payment of compensation to the land owners.
BCT project has already got NOC (no-objection certificate) from 15 agencies concerned, including Department of Environment, Chittagong Development Authority, Chittagong City Corporation, Fire Services, Chittagong WASA, Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd and Bangladesh Police.
The estimated cost of the total land for BCT is Tk 78.60 billion. Former Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Md Shamsul Arefin in his letter to Ministry of Land on March 20 opined that the land can be given to CPA under Lease Rules 1995 at gift-price in the national interest.
In another letter sent to the ministry it was stated that the allocation of some lands in all the moujas is yet to be settled in the courts.
The issue was discussed in Chittagong Port advisory committee meeting recently, and Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong Md Abdul Mannan said he will take steps for quick settlement of the issue and the legal complications will be removed soon.
Under Strategic Master Plan (SMP) 2013-43, CPA has planned to set up the new terminal on 907 acres of land on Halishahar-Patenga coastline near Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) with all modern facilities to increase the port's activities and reduce transportation cost.
CPA will finance, control and supervise the terminal project, which is considered as the future port of Chittagong. It will partially meet the need for constructing a deep seaport in Cox's Bazar that is in the government's long-term plan.
After construction, BCT will allow big ships, which cannot anchor at the port now for draft limitations, to berth for carrying out shipping activities. It will enhance draft of vessels, and remove existing limitations of low tide and high tide. Besides, as many as 35 ships will be able to anchor in the port at a time.
German Consulting firm HPC completed the feasibility study of BCT with the technical support of Asian Development Bank under the 30-year SMP.
As per the SMP projection, the port will have to handle over 2.7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers by 2019 when its handling capacity will remain 2.28 million TEUs.
Its handling deficit will rise to 1.1 million TEUs by 2022, which necessitates urgent undertaking of the project.
Businesses of the country have expressed concern over the slow pace of infrastructural development of the prime seaport.
They stated that the port will not be able to handle the large volume of import and export cargoes beyond 2018, if its berthing and equipment facilities are not enhanced adequately.
In this regard they have added that the terminal needs to be constructed on an urgent basis.
CPA member (admin and planning) Zafar Alam said the site for BCT is excellent. It has a large area without structures or occupants, and the land is available from the local district administration at almost no cost. It has possibility for future expansion, and is close to the existing road and rail links with Dhaka.