Land acquisition obstacle to setting up container terminal

The district administration could not yet acquire those lands though the land ministry gave permission in this regard, port sources added.

Installation of container terminal may be delayed further unless the land could be acquired.

District administration sent some contingent of police last week to recover the land. In the face of resistance from the owners of the land, police returned without acquiring the land though CPA was ready to pay due compensation for the land, officials said.

CPA Chairman Shahadat Hossain said efforts were on to acquire the land through a negotiated settlement with the owners. He said about 200 families are staying there, he said. "We are trying to acquire their lands through mutual understanding without applying any force," he said.

"We have taken a soft approach now to acquire the private land through negotiation with the dwellers as it is difficult to evict 200 families at a time from their homestead. We don't want to do anything inhuman with them," CPA chairman said.

"It is obviously a big hurdle for us as we are facing problem on our way to install the container terminal to raise port efficiency," he added. "We already had meetings with the private owners and dwellers and we would continue it to achieve the target and we would provide them with due compensation against the land," he said.

"We are also thinking of rehabilitating the affected people as they have been living there for a long time," he said adding "Now we have 41 acres of land owned by the port itself and we need more 14 acres for implementation of the container project."

"Besides, we will have to remove 3,000 empty containers from port yards before starting the construction works of the terminal. We have already initiated the process to remove the same," the chairman said. "However, we hope to launch the groundbreaking work by middle of March."

Meanwhile, Chinese construction firm China Harbour Ltd signed a contract with CPA recently for setting up the container terminal at the port area, officials said.

The representative of China Harbour Ltd Zhou Jing Xiong and CPA Chairman Shahadat Hossain signed the contract on behalf of their respective sides.

The construction work is scheduled to complete within 30 months.

After commissioning of this new container terminal, Chittagong port will be able to handle additional 500,000 containers annually."

"We are also expecting an additional revenue earning of Tk 400 crore a year from this new terminal," CPA chairman said adding that it would raise efficiency of Chittagong port in handling container cargo.

The new terminal of 1,000-metre length if built, may allow berthing of five container vessels at a time for handling, he said.