Bangladesh has announced plans to build an ICD in the Narsingdi district in central Bangladesh. This rail based ICD will be located in the Ghorashal area and will cater to the cargo movement needs of the surrounding industrial areas. The infrastructure is expected to be ready by 2026.
Container Company of Bangladesh Ltd (CCBL) has invited bids for the construction of the multimodal ICD on Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain-Transfer (DBFOMT) basis.
Transportation of raw materials and produces to and from the nearby factories will be easier once the depot is built. It will be spread on an area of 20,000m² owned by Bangladesh Railway and will have an annual handling capacity of 100,000 TEUs.
To be built under the public private partnership (PPP) model the builder will operate the ICD for 25 years and then will hand it over to the CCBL. The builder and the CCBL will share profit during the period.
The ICD will also facilitate the movement of rail-based boxes to and from Bangladesh and neighbouring countries, especially to India, according to officials.
A railway official said Ghorashal is an industrial zone and the demand for transporting cargo from there is growing every year. Once built, the depot will also be able to facilitate the transportation of containerised cargo to and from factories in neighbouring Mymensingh and Gazipur districts.
Presently, Bangladesh Railway has one ICD in Dhaka which will be relocated in the next five years while work is progressing to build another ICD in Gazipur district with an annual capacity of handling 354,000 TEUs.
The process to build another rail-ICD in Chittagong has been suspended due to legal complications.
Bangladesh Railway has a plan to build another ICD on the western bank of the Jamuna River under Sirajganj district further to facilitate the carriage of containers from India. Bangladesh imports goods worth around US$14 billion annually from India.
