Bangladesh cabinet approves deep seaport authority draft

The Bangladeshi government Monday approved the draft of the Sonadia Deep Seaport Authority Act to pave the way for constructing the country's first deep seaport in the Bay of Bengal. "The cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair Monday approved the draft in principle," her Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said while briefing reporters after the meeting. Bangladesh has taken move to construct the deep seaport on Sonadia Island under the country's southeastern Cox's Bazar district, 391 km southeast of capital Dhaka, as large-scale ships with 188-meter or more length can not pass through the narrow channel of the principal seaport Chittagong. The Bangladeshi government in October this year floated an international bidding process seeking to appoint an expert firm to oversee the construction of the ambitious deep seaport. Officials earlier said the first phase construction cost of the deep seaport in Sonadia area in Cox's Bazar district was estimated to be 156.89 billion taka (2.24 billion U.S. dollars). Bangladesh plans to build the deep seaport for years but finalized the location in 2010 and began looking for international partners expecting the facility to be the main shipping hub for also northeastern India, China's Yunnan province, Myanmar and landlocked Nepal and Bhutan. According to initial plans, the deep seaport would have two breakwaters of 1.9 kilometers and 2.25 kilometers long and a basin with 3.7 kilometers long, 400 meters wide and 14 meters deep.