Sonadia port's prospect
A BSS report was published in most papers on the 13th July about the construction programme of this deep seaport located at Sonadia Island off Cox's Bazar. It ambitiously reported of the work programme to have the port operational by 2020! Best of luck to the programmers! Hopefully they can do it, but "what is sauce for the goose" in our brand of politics, "is never sauce for the gander"! We can only hope and pray!
Unfortunately, we were not informed by the dailies, if the location is on the island or the mainland. Hopefully, it is the mainland, because for an island location, the link with the hinterland (Bangladesh) will only be possible by water transport! Even with a shore based location, the road and railway link between the proposed port and the hinterland will be a colossal and ambitious task. The perennial point to ponder is, will it be a meter or broad gauge railway link? Hopefully, all this has been addressed in the nine volume 2500 page study, prepared over the last three years as reported! I am hopeful that the transport aspect has been clarified as it relates to the railway rolling stock assets, which even today is not adequate. What will happen to Chittagong port? Will it be downgraded to a costal port more for inland transport; or remain as a South East Asia feeder sea link only?
Hopefully, our newspapers will highlight these issues from the report and publish it along with the location shown in an enlarged map, including proposed road and rail links. If this materialises, then South East Bangladesh will be developed and the only loss may be the pristine beaches of Cox's Bazar; which will naturally become a crowded hub for rail and road transport.
We eagerly look forward to further information being published by the dailies, along with needed maps and sketches.
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