Citizens oppose leasing of NCT, CCT

A citizens' platform today demanded that the government immediately scrap plans to lease the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) and Chattogram Container Terminal (CCT) to domestic or foreign operators, saying the country's main seaport must remain under national ownership and control.

At a press conference at the Chattogram Press Club, the port protection committee alleged that negotiations with Dubai-based port operator DP World over operating the NCT under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement were at the final stage.

It also claimed that the Chattogram Port Authority had formed a 12-member support team to assist the negotiation process.

Reading out a written statement, the committee's convener, engineer Delwar Majumdar, said Chattogram Port handles around 90 percent of Bangladesh's import and export trade, making its ownership and control a matter of national security and sovereignty rather than merely a commercial issue.

The speakers said both the NCT and the CCT were built with public funds and have long been operated successfully under local management.

They claimed the NCT, despite having an annual capacity of 1.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), currently handles around 1.3 million TEUs a year and set a monthly record of 126,496 TEUs in May this year.

They also alleged that container handling charges had already been increased by 37 percent before the finalisation of any agreement, increasing trade costs and ultimately affecting consumers.

Leasing the terminals to a foreign operator, they said, would allow a significant portion of port revenue to leave the country as profits.

The organisation placed a five-point demand, including cancelling all initiatives to lease the NCT and the CCT, keeping all port terminals under the direct management of the Chattogram Port Authority, making all port-related agreements public, and ensuring that the port remains under national ownership, control, and security.

The committee also announced a rally and a human chain at the Chattogram Press Club on June 30 to press home its demands.