14 trade bodies requested to provide info about possible trade thru Patenga terminal

The Chattogram Port Authority in a recent letter requested 14 trade bodies, including the BGMEA and the FBCCI, to provide the Patenga Container Terminal project consultant – Hamburg Port Consulting – with necessary information about possible cargo handling through the terminal. 

"The consultant is required to understand the market situation of container/cargo handled at the Chattogram Port and the future demand of the [terminal] project. The consultant, together with its local partner KS Consultants, will reach out to you to get the necessary information," reads the letter, a copy of which The Business Standard obtained. 

"Therefore, you [the trade bodies] are requested to extend support towards the technical consultant, Hamburg Port Consulting," added that letter Chattoram Port Authority Secretary Md Omar Faruq wrote on 25 January.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) is providing transaction advisory services to the Chattogram Port Authority for this project, it noted and added that the IFC appointed Hamburg Port Consulting as the technical consultant to conduct market parameters in order to determine the technically and operationally feasible capacity of the terminal.

When contacted, Secretary Omar Faruq told TBS that they issued the letter to the stakeholders following a demand from the consultant to ensure good cooperation. 

"We will appoint an operator for the terminal based on reports of the transaction advisor and the technical consultant," said Chattogram Port Authority Executive Engineer Mizanur Rahman. 

"We will supply information about our determined tariff and taxes to them," he told TBS. The engineer, however, failed to confirm a deadline to appoint the operator. 

Currently, government-imported rice is being released through the terminal under the management of the Chattogram Port. 
The terminal, with three container jetties and an oil unloading (dolphin) jetty, is able to load and unload cargo from four vessels at a time.

After the full opening of the Patenga terminal – 15 years after the new mooring terminal was constructed in 2007 – the number of jetties of the Chattogram Port, accounting for  92% of the country's import and export goods handling, will increase to 23.