Bangladesh parliamentary body for enactment of deep seaport authority act

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Shipping Ministry has recommended enactment of deep seaport authority act within one month and asked the ministry to present the draft act before the committee soon.
It also suggested that a provision for authorising the deep seaport authority should be incorporated in the proposed act to supervise construction of the third seaport in the country’s southern part besides looking after the construction work of other seaports in future.
The parliamentary watchdog made the suggestions at its 23rd meeting held at the Parliament Building on Tuesday.
Meeting sources said in November last year the shipping ministry sent the draft act to the ministries concerned but the law ministry is yet to give its final opinion in this regard.
The shipping ministry has already started communicating with the donor organisations after preparing a Tk 15,986 crore pre-development project proposal.
Some 22 international consultation firms expressed their eagerness to prepare the design of the deep seaport. The ministry has started examining the documents submitted by these organisations.
The Chittagong seaport authority will bear the expenses for preparing the detailed design of the deep seaport, the meeting sources said.
The meeting also discussed allotment for the country’s land ports and their earnings. It also asked the ministry to submit a report on the allotment and earnings of the land ports in future.The parliamentary watc-hdog opined that Mongla Port has been incurring losses every year as no industries have been set up on 460 acres of the port land that was given lease to the EPZ authority.
It also suggested a discussion to determine whether the port land can be given lease to local entrepr-eneurs for setting up industries there.
The committee also suggested that the ministry should prepare a ‘priority list’ to implement the recom-mendations of the com-mittee. It asked the ministry to present a ‘priority list’ in its next meeting.
Committee chairman Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury presided over the meeting which attended by members Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, Mohammad Shah Alam, Habibun Nahar, Shamsul Huq Chowdhury, Md Abu Jahir and Nazrul Islam Babu. Officials concerned including Shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Hawlader was also present.
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