The construction works of the Matarbari Deep Sea Port, the Bangladesh’s largest ever seaport, will begin very soon. The port is expected to usher in a new era in Bangladesh’s international maritime trade. Adviser for Shipping, Labour, and Employment Brigadier General M. Shakhawat Hussain said this while attending a contract signing ceremony as the chief guest, held at a local hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday morning, according to local media.

The contract was signed by Rear Admiral S. M. Moniruzzaman, Chairman of the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA), and Tomokazu Hasegawa, General Manager of Penta Ocean Construction Company Limited.

The contract has been signed with a joint venture of Penta-Ocean Construction for 65 per cent of the works and TOA Corporation for 35 per cent of the works of the Matarbari Port Development Project Phase 1 – Package 1: Procurement of Civil Works for Port Construction. It is scheduled for completion in 42 months.

In the proposed deep-sea port, the mother vessels, with nearly 16-metre draft, will be able to take berth. Currently, in the Chattogram Port jetties, vessels with a draft of only 9 metres can take berth. The container vessel, with only 2,000 TEUS of containers, can take berth in CPA jetties. In the proposed deep-sea port, vessels carrying 8,000 TEUS of containers will take berth.

According to reliable sources, JICA has agreed to finance nearly $ 500 million for the project. With the completion of the first phase by 2026, work on the second phase will commence. Meanwhile, the construction of a 14.3-km-long, 250-m-wide, and 18.5-m-deep channel for the port is complete. The work to widen the channel by another 100 metres is ongoing. Once completed, the channel will enable ships with a capacity of 80,000 tonnes to sail in. It will resemble Kashima Port in Japan, according to Toshiba Corporation, one of the project’s contractors.

The first phase of the deep-sea port at Matarbari is expected to be completed by the middle of 2029 having one multipurpose and one container terminal.