Chittagong Correspondent //

Eight land ports in the border areas of Bangladesh are being closed, said Brigadier General (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain, Advisor to the Ministry of Shipping.

He said this while talking to reporters at Jetty No. 1 after inspecting various facilities including the car shed of the Chittagong Port on Thursday. He was accompanied by Chittagong Port Chairman Real Admiral SM Moniruzzaman.

M Sakhawat Hossain told reporters, “I have identified eight land ports, one side of which has no imports. It has been 10 years, but there are no imports. We are spending there from the revenue. We will go back and start the process to do something about these or what the process will be to close them.”

Stating that there is a plan to build a land port in the Ghumdhum area of ​​Naikshongchhari upazila of Bandarban, he said, “We have a port in Teknaf with Myanmar. Some imports are made there.” Let’s take a look at that place. At the same time, there is a place called Ghumdhum. We have a land connection with Arakan or Rakhine there. We will look into the future and see if a land port can be built there.

He said, no matter what happens in Myanmar in the future, we have had and will have relations with the Rakhine state. Since the Rohingya live there. If necessary, we will build a port there. Even though we call Teknaf Port a land port, it is not a land port. It may become a sea port.

The naval advisor also said that Matarbari Port in Cox’s Bazar will be able to start working fully by 2030. Currently, a lot of investment is coming in various projects including the Bay Terminal and Laldia Terminal of the Chittagong Port. Work is underway to modernize Mongla Port.

Earlier, when the naval advisor went to inspect the car shed of the port, he faced protests from workers. The leaders and activists of the Chittagong Port Nationalist Workers’ Party were already protesting at the entrance of the shed, demanding the cancellation of the privatization process of the port facilities. At one stage, they started protesting around the naval advisor’s car. At that time, the advisor assured the protesters that they would not do anything that would harm the country. Later, the protesters left.

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