Dwaipayan Barua

In a bid to automate procedures to cut time and business cost, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is set to launch an electronic system from next month to enable importers to receive goods somewhat faster.

The government is set to undertake a nearly Tk 3,500-crore project to construct an 11-kilometre elevated road over haors in Kishoreganj to connect the northeastern backwater to the mainland.

Real estate companies are hoping for a good response from buyers at a four-day housing fair that kicked off in Chattogram yesterday as apartment sales in the port city gained momentum in line with the waning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bangladeshi feeder vessel operator HR Lines, a subsidiary of the country’s only container vessel owning firm Karnaphuli Group, is now in the final stage of negotiations with a Chinese shipbuilder over building four 3,000 TEU-capacity vessels.

Private inland container depots (ICDs) have raised five types of operational charges, amounting to around Tk 145 crore in additional costs if last fiscal year’s trade volumes are taken into account.

With a countrywide strike of goods transporters coming to an end on Monday night, the Chattogram port and 19 private inland container depots (ICDs) are now struggling with the backlog of the preceding four days.

Though the strike involving public transport was withdrawn on Sunday evening, the owners and workers of vehicles engaged in transporting goods continued to enforce their countrywide protest as of yesterday evening, taking a toll on export, import and trade.

Losses piled up for local traders and exporters yesterday as goods could not move owing to the countrywide transport strike.

Power and gas are likely to become pricier next after diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas as the government looks to calibrate the prices in the local market following a global price spiral since July.

The countrywide transport strike disrupted the smooth functioning of the apparel supply chain in Bangladesh for the second straight day yesterday, hurting the recovery of the garment shipment.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is set to provide $750 million for vaccine purchase and to help the economy to recover from the fallout of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In 2017, with the view to alleviating the capital’s absurd traffic congestion, the government took up the Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway project to implement largely with Chinese funding.

In a rare move, the government is not rushing into a $3-billion loan offer from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as Bangladesh has received a huge amount of budget support from multilateral lenders to fight the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is expected to become operational from 2023, months ahead of the scheduled 2024 timeframe, said Shaukat Akbar, its project director.

Bangladesh is taking on increasingly higher levels of debt to fund its infrastructure spending, crucial for the economy to level up to a middle-income one by 2041.

The transport of export and import containers to and from two private inland container depots (ICDs) was suspended as prime mover workers enforced work abstention to realise several demands.

Operations at the country’s premier Chattogram sea port have resumed after around 35 hours with a countrywide work abstention enforced by a section of logistics service providers being called off yesterday afternoon.

The transport operators’ countrywide strike yesterday affected export and import of goods at a time when businesses have been attempting to make a recovery from the fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Write-off loans rose slightly in the second quarter of 2021, although they remain at the lower level thanks to the eases of rules because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a rare development, Chattogram port has been able to allow container ships to berth faster upon arrival over the past 40 days, enabling brisk delivery of imports.