S'pore co signs $3bn Mongla port deal

[iajdani]

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Dhaka, Dec 02 (bdnews24.com)--Mongla Port Authority on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding worth around Tk 21,000 crore ($ 3 billion) with a Singaporean company to develop the second largest seaport of the country.

Mongla Port Authority chairman M Faruque and David Wignall Associates Pte Ltd's chief executive David Wignall signed the MoU at the shipping ministry.

Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, who was present at the MoU signing ceremony, said, "This is one of the biggest foreign direct investments in Bangladesh."

"Power plant, water treatment plant, industrial park, dredging system, container terminals and other infrastructure will be set up over 20 years."

"The port can play a vital role in importing and exporting goods to various countries, including India, Nepal, China and Bhutan."

"The national interest has been protected in signing the deal based on Public-Private Partnership, he added.

The deal will be finally struck after the company conducts a feasibility study next year and the government agrees with the finds, Khan said.

He added $400 million would be spent on installations and commercialisation from December 2010 to December 2012.

In addition, a further $600 million will go for setting up industrial park from Dec, 2012 to Dec 2015 and $2,000 million for the expansion of the port by 2030.

http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?...=148097&hb=top

[iajdani]

Congratulation to the people of Khulna and Mongla and as whole the south western part of the country. Mongla port in addition to Padma bridge will bring back the lost pride of the south west.

[iajdani]

Chittagong port -- bustling...


Mongla port --- dying

[Goodperson]

Chittagong port -- bustling...


Mongla port --- dying

Good for BD, I would have been more happy if Bangladesh would have tried to build the port itself or shared technical know how after paying royalty. Perhaps time factor was the constraint.

[iajdani]

Port is already there but it need business. I bet s. porean company will bring business to the port city including industrial park.

[Goodperson]

Port is already there but it need business. I bet s. porean company will bring business to the port city including industrial park.

Renovation and expansion of the port is required for doing good business I think Singapore companies role would be limited to that.

I hoped Bangladesh would have collaborated so that its own people could be trained in building future ports and save foreign currency too.

[eastwatch]

Good for BD, I would have been more happy if Bangladesh would have tried to build the port itself or shared technical know how after paying royalty. Perhaps time factor was the constraint.

It would have been ideal to do the Port design and construction job by ourselves, but BD engineering and construction companies are still without experience to design and construct such a project by themselves. Port design itself is a vast subject that requires special knowledge. Singaporean, Japanese and many european companies have already acquired this experince in the last 150 years. But, not a single BD company has this experience.

A $3 billion port project is really big. Heavy duty trucks, cranes, and drilling, boring, piling and earth moving machineries etc. in adequate numbers are needed to do the job in a specified time frame. BD construction companies have yet to build up this muscle. Most of them do not know how to draw a time schedule and how to finish a job within the schedule time. Our govt civil engineers are less expert in the schedule matters.

I am wondering if this is also not another AL paper project.

[idune]

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Congratulation to the people of Khulna and Mongla and as whole the south western part of the country. Mongla port in addition to Padma bridge will bring back the lost pride of the south west.

With inception of RUpsha bridge few years back Khulna has been primed for development. Looking at how many MOU had been signed and how many turned out to be real project, I hope this MOU converts to a real and successful project. Its been long overdue.