The under construction Matarbari Port, the first ever deep-sea port of Bangladesh, once operational will boost trade through the Chittagong Port — the deep-sea port is expected to help ease growing external trade including shipments of the all-important apparel products — while also contributing around 2 to 3 per cent to the GDP growth.
Talking to the media, Shipping Secretary Mohammed Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, reportedly, maintained this while adding that objective of the project — the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on 10 March 2020 approved the Matarbari Port Development Project with Taka 17,777.16 crore — is to enhance the cargo handling capacity of the country through constructing the Matarbari Port including link road and thus fulfill the demand of global trade as well as facilitate speedy port services with the neighbouring nations.
The Matarbari Port is likely to add 2 to 3 per cent GDP in the country’s economy, reportedly, maintained the Shipping Secretary while adding that the existing yearly container handling capacity of the Chittagong Port is 3.1 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) container even as the growing demand will exceed the existing handling capacity within next year and as such the handling capacity has to be increased by more 4 billion TEUs within 2033 while adding that the Payra and Mongla ports will not able to meet the growing demand; and as such the Matarbari and Bay Terminal are likely to be the solution.
