Al Amin :
Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kamalapur is going to be relocated at Dhirasram in Gazipur to facilitate cross-border trades.
Emergence of the new one with four times higher container handling capacity than the Kamlapur ICD is to cater for the growth of container based cargo handling and transportation.
Shahidullah Azim, Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), told The New Nation, “The initiative is very good for the country. Time and cost will be lower, if it is shifted at the new location as maximum export-oriented factories are situated in this area.”
Officials of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) said they held a meeting with the concern stakeholders including officials of the ADB on Tuesday.
In the high-profile meeting, they decided to establish the depot in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the super infrastructure set up under Public-Private partnership project, the officials said.
The Kamalapur ICD has been handling both the inbound and outbound container cargoes transported by Bangladesh Railway only.
But the capacity of Kamalapur ICD is not adequate enough to serve the increasing share of container handling diverted towards Bangladesh Railway.
Further expansion of Kamalapur ICD is difficult due to heavy built up of the surrounding area. Apart from capacity constraints, day time prohibition on movement of commercial vehicles (Truck, Container Lorry, Pick-up, etc.) is also very difficult.
Therefore, it was necessary to establish another full-fledged ICD with constant access to container handling and transportation.
For this purpose, it was decided to construct a new ICD near Dhirasram Railway station attached to the Dhaka eastern by-pass road.
In order to bring the expected efficiency in container handling Bangladesh Railway has considered the project to be implemented under PPP modality.
The proposed ICD near Dhirasram Railway station is planned to cater the rapid growth of containerized traffic handled in the Chittagong Port.
Moreover, industries like readymade garments in particular which are being shifted to areas north of Dhaka, the woven mills situated in Mirpur, Tejgaon, Demra and factories on Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, Dhaka EPZ, Savar, Tongi, Gazipur etc. are accessible to the proposed ICD Site at Dhirasram.
It is also ideally suited for containerization of Indo-Bangla trade in the near future.
The objective of the project is to help economic growth of the country by providing adequate physical facilities for achieving the target of increase in number of container movements by rail in the key Dhaka-Chattogram transport corridor with regionally competitive transport costs and more reliable movement of import and export cargo.
The handling capacity of the proposed ICD is 354,000 TEUs. The ICD will be developed on approximately 55 hectors of land and with railway spur of 6 km connecting the ICD with the national railway network on around 26 hectors land.
