Govt approves 15-year deal to hand over Chattogram Port’s NCT to foreign operator

The government on Thursday decided to hand over the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) of Chattogram Port to an international terminal operator as it approved the draft concession agreement for the operation and maintenance of the much-talked-about terminal.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday gave approval to the draft concession agreement for 15 years, placed by the Shipping Ministry. The concession agreement will also include the Overflow Container Yard (OCY) of NCT.

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The development comes amid protests by different sections, including the Chattogram Bandar Rokkha Songram Parishad, a pro-ruling party workers' platform, opposing the handover of the terminal to a foreign operator.

The economic affairs committee's approval did not mention the name of any foreign operator, and neither Chattogram Port Authority nor Invest Bangladesh Authority commented on when the agreement is expected to be signed.

However, in a statement signed by Mohammad Humayun Kabir and Mohammad Ibrahim Khokon, joint coordinators of the platform, they mentioned the name of the multinational operator DP World and alleged that claims about NCT's equipment being obsolete and equipment availability falling below international standards were misleading and aimed at facilitating the handover.

It said giving DP World operational control could create long-term economic and security risks, including the outflow of revenue and foreign currency and possible job losses for port workers.

The Bandar Rokkha Songram Parishad said NCT generated around Tk 4,500 crore in revenue and Tk 2,500 crore in net income in fiscal 2025-26, and warned that a concession could reduce the government’s earnings and affect jobs at the port.

The platform urged the government to reconsider the draft agreement, which it said had recently been approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

The Daily Star tried to reach Shipping Secretary Zakaria by phone but could not reach him.

The proposal to hire a foreign operator for the NCT, the largest container-handling facility at the country’s main seaport, Chattogram Port, has been under consideration for several years. The process began in 2019, while the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave in-principle approval to appoint an international private operator under the PPP model in March 2023.

The interim government was close to finalising a deal with DP World to operate NCT. But in the wake of a wildcat strike enforced by port employees and workers, it suspended the move just before the parliamentary election held in February this year. The new government has continued the talks, according to the fourth joint public-private partnership platform meeting of Bangladesh and Dubai held in Dubai in April this year.

In June, Chattogram Port Authority formed a 12-member support team to assist the negotiation committee on the NCT.

The terminal, currently operated by Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd, a Bangladesh Navy-controlled company, handles over 40 percent of the port's total container throughput, recorded at 3.5 million TEUs in fiscal year 2025-26.

The NCT, built at a cost of about Tk 2,000 crore in 2007, contains five jetties and 14 of Chattogram Port's 18 quayside gantry cranes.

The NCT will get the fourth foreign operator at Chattogram Port after the appointment of three other foreign firms. In June 2024, operator RSGT International (RSGTI) started handling the Red-Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT), formerly known as Patenga Container Terminal. By the end of August this year, APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Danish shipping group AP Møller-Maersk, began construction of Laldia Container Terminal in Chattogram. At the beginning of this year, Switzerland-based logistics giant Medlog started handling Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT) in Dhaka’s Keraniganj.