In a bid to ease water transportation of goods, the government is going to construct an inland container terminal on the bank of the Shitalakhya River in Khanpur area in Narayanganj city.
The shipping ministry has taken a project titled ‘Khanpur Inland Container and Bulk Terminal’ to transport goods through waterways from the port city Chattogram to the capital and across the country.
The estimated cost of the project stands at Tk 392 crore which will come from the government exchequer.
The project is likely to be placed before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting today to be chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinahe, a senior official of the planning commission told The Bangladesh Post.
Once it gets approval, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will implement the project by December 2022.
The official said the Khanpur terminal will enhance the regional and sub-regional trade capacity ensuring easy transportation of goods from Chattogram, Mongla and other sea ports in the country.
The terminal aims to speed up container and bulk transport in Dhaka and enable container transport to northern districts.
Narayanganj was known as Dandy area. It is now various industries including the ready-made garments, cement and hosiery.
Once implemented, the Khanpur terminal project will ease container transportation from Chattogram, Mongla and other ports to Dhaka.
Fatullah is the BSSIC industrial area of the district. About 1,200-1,500 production units of readymade garments are located in the area.
Besides, Fatullah is well-known for salt factories, and wholesale market of construction materials. Meanwhile, just eight kilometres away from the project, Pangaon Inland Container Terminal has been operating to transport goods. But entrepreneurs are not interested in using the Pangaon terminal due to a shortage of vessels, lack of available schedules, and charging of waiting containers at Chattogram port.
The Pangaon Inland Container Depot (ICD) was launched in 2013. The handling capacity of the depot is 1.16 lakh containers per year.
