Country begins building first green container terminal

Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan inaugurated the construction work of the country's first eco-friendly green container terminal in Chattogram.

He inaugurated the work bywith cutting the soil in front of Chattogram Port Stadium on Saturday afternoon. 

A multimodal green container terminal will be built on around 30 acres of Bangladesh Railway land with investment from the Saif Power Group.

Following the inauguration, various financial and commercial aspects of the terminal were presented to the minister.

Speaking as chief guest at the event, Sujan said, "Railways are a profitable venture in the developed world but our country's railways have to be subsidised by the government. After independence, the father of the nation took several steps to make the railways a profitable institution, but after 1975, that stopped."

"After taking charge of the government, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the implementation of those steps. Railway has formed the Container Company of Bangladesh Limited (CCBL) to increase its source of income. It was decided to build a multimodal container terminal on railway's abandoned land in a joint venture with Saif Logistics Alliance Limited," he added.

The minister said the railways can generate new jobs utilising their own resources. Then the government will not have to subsidise it anymore and Bangladesh Railway can be a profitable company.

The railway minister said, at present Chattogram Port handles 32 lakh TEU containers annually and only 5% of the containers are transported inland by rail which should be 10%-15%. This will reduce pressure on the highways and the railways will also be able to increase revenues.

Secretary to railways ministry, Md Humayun Kabir, Director General of railways, Dhirendra Nath Majumder, General Manager of railways (eastern), Md Jahangir Hossain, CCBL Managing Director Belal Hossain, and Managing Director of Saif Logistics Alliance Limited, Tarafdar Ruhul Saif, among others, were also present at the time.

Ruhul Saif said the country's first green container terminal will be directly connected by road, rail and sea. This multimodal terminal will be a full green terminal. No machinery of the terminal will run on fuel oil but rather, entirely on electricity and solar power. Operational work will be conducted like modern terminals in developed countries, with modern equipment, state-of-the-art scanners, and abiding by all ISPS rules. This will be a milestone achievement for the country.

He said the terminal will handle 350,000 TEU containers a year and will have 125,000 TEU consolation centres, thus reducing the cost of imports and exports significantly and playing an important role in the country's export sector.