Export infra development project gets approval in Dhaka

Dhaka: A Taka 1200-crore export infrastructure development project has been approved to reduce growing pressure of export and import on the Chittagong Seaport.

The project, which includes an inland container depot (ICD) at Dhirashrom near Tongi, construction of double railway lines from Chittagong Port to Foujdarhat, and procurement of 10 railway engines and 120 flat wagons, has received the approval of the project committee of the Planning Commission.

The process for approval of the export infrastructure development project began in 2003. But the process was delayed and the construction work could not begin by June 2008. Now, the construction work under the project will begin in November 2009 and will complete in 2014, Bangladesh Railway sources said.

After completion of the project, there will be a scope for handling 15 per cent of the containers in Chittagong through the ICD by 2016 and 30 per cent by 2026.

The Shridham ICD under the project will be the country's second ICD with a capacity of 3.54 TEUs (twenty equivalent units). The ICD will be constructed on 137 acres of land at a cost of Taka 500 crore.

The country's first ICD was constructed at Kamalapur in 1987. Its capacity is 90,000 TEUs. Pressure is increasing on the ICD every year since its inception.

In fiscal 2007-08, a total of 82,000 containers were handled in the ICD. But this number is only 10 percent of the containers handled in the Chittagong Port.