The Crime Desk: The interim government has increased the duration of the Matarbari deep sea port construction project in Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar, by three years and the cost by Tk 6,573 crore, which is about 37 percent. The cost of upgrading the Hatikamrul-Rangpur highway from Elenga in Tangail to four lanes has also been increased. This increase in expenditure was approved in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on Monday. The cost of this deep sea port project taken during the Awami League government was initially estimated at 17 thousand 777 crore 20 lakh taka; the term was estimated until December 31, 2026. In the first amendment, the cost of the project was slightly increased to 17 thousand 807 crores. The cost of the revised project for the second time stood at 24 thousand 381 crores. Without explaining the reason for the more than one-third cost increase, Planning Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud said the reason for the cost increase was “technical” and he was not fully “aware” of it. He said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will give this extra money to the government as a loan.
In the meeting, the duration of the project to establish the first and only deep sea port in the country was extended by three years till December 2029. In a briefing after the meeting, the planning adviser said that this could be the only’major infrastructure project’ in the interim government. He said, since a jetty has already been completed in Matarbari, we have considered the project of making a deep sea port. It is a big project. But this project has a lot of geopolitical significance, and who is doing it is also a big issue.
Highlighting the importance of the project, the adviser said, First of all, we all know that we will need a deep sea port. Chittagong doesn’t have that capability; Payra Port doesn’t have it at all. As Bangladesh grows more and more trade without a deep-sea port, the cost of doing business will increase. We did this boldly because, for a long time, there was a lot of tension between China and India, but nothing was happening. He said about Japan’s financing, we thought that Japan is a country that gives loans on very easy terms. The Japanese projects are probably the only projects that are completed on time within the same cost as South Korea. For example, metro rail line 5, Dhaka third airport.
