Container terminal near Dhaka planned
Staff Correspondent

Shipments from the capital and its surrounding areas will become a bit easier by the end of this year when an inland container terminal near the capital will start operation.
Meeting a delegation of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Tuesday, the shipping minister, Absaraul Amin, disclosed that development of the terminal would be started in few weeks targeting it’s launching in December.
According to the meeting sources, the minister told exporters that tender for developing necessary facilities at the Khanpur terminal would be floated within a week. The terminal will be operated by the private sector operator, he also told exporters, who met him at the secretariat.
The Khanpur terminal, to be built on an almost unused river port at 20 kilometer south- east off Dhaka, will make ways for speedy transportations of containers to and from the Chittagong port.
Earlier on April 30, the BKMEA delegation had urged the prime minister upon the renovations of the river port by setting up container moving cranes there.
The BKMEA president, Fazlul Hoque, told journalists that the Khanpur terminal might serve significant portion of exports of the industries in Dhaka and Narayannganj.
‘The almost unused river terminal near the capital can easily be turned into a much useful export container terminal. If rivers are dredged, the seagoing feeder vessels can also come to Khnapur directly,’ he said.
At present containers from Dhaka and Narayanganj are carried by trucks to Chittgong port, which is some 260 kilometers far from the capital, and the only link highway is very much congested.
The river transportation of containers to the port will also reduce cost of exporters significantly, said the BKMEA president.
The BKMEA delegation also urged the minister that government took immediate actions regarding cuts on the container handling charges at the Chittagong port.