Dhaka to Transfer Land Ports to Private Operators

Dhaka to transfer land ports to private operators

DHAKA, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — Bangladesh will hand over all 12 land ports to private operators in phases under Build-Operate- Transfer arrangement to boost cross-border trade.

The Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA) will transfer the ports in three phases considering their trade handling capacity and strategic locations for having a positive impact on bilateral trade with the neighboring countries, The Financial Express reported Friday.

Under the first phase, the operations of five land ports will be handed over to the private sector by the end of this year to facilitate border trade with neighboring countries.

In the second phase, the operations of four ports, including the south eastern Teknaf land port bordering Myanmar, will go to the private sector by next year.

The rest ports will also be transferred to the private sector after successful completion of the first and second phases.

The BLPA will directly control the operations of the land ports as a regulatory body before handing over the ports to the private sector.

M/S Univam Port Services, a private operator, was selected to manage the Teknaf land port in November 2003 as a test case to improve its operation.

Revenue earnings form the Taknaf land port have improved significantly as the authorities collected 600 million taka (9.2 million US dollars). The annual revenue earnings were only 50 million taka (0.77 million dollars) before the hand over of the port management to the private sector.