After a long wait, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) finally signed a deal yesterday with a Japanese joint venture to construct a terminal for a deep-sea port at Cox's Bazar's Matarbari, some 350 kilometres southeast of capital Dhaka.

This will pave the way towards handling mother container vessels.

It will also lessen to a good extent the country's years-long dependency on transhipment ports for transporting import and export cargo.

The Japanese joint venture comprises Penta-Ocean Construction Co Ltd and TOA Corporation.

It will develop a 760-metre terminal comprising a container jetty and a multipurpose jetty under a "Matarbari Port Development Project (CPA Part) Phase-1 Package 1: Procurement of Civil Works for Port Construction".

CPA Chairman Rear Admiral SM Moniruzzaman and Tomokazu Hasegawa, general manager of the Penta-Ocean, signed the contract at a hotel in Dhaka.

The total estimated cost of the phase-1 project is Tk 6,196.67 crore while the deadline is 2029.

Of the cost, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will provide Tk 5,426.67 crore as a loan while the remaining Tk 770 crore will come from the CPA.

The cost of the project to develop the whole Matarbari port is estimated at Tk 24,381.40 crore.

The CPA and Roads and Highways Department will implement the project in two phases by 2041.

Addressing yesterday's signing ceremony as chief guest, Shipping Adviser Brig Gen (retd) Sakhawat Hussain said the Matarbari deep-sea port would show the way to new horizons in the country's international trade.

Terming the project as a strategic investment for the country's future, the adviser said once operational, the port will be capable of handling large ships of up to 100,000 deadweight tonnage capacity.

"With this port, which will help reduce congestion at the existing port facilities and speed up the supply chain, the country will turn into an important energy and transhipment hub," the adviser said.

Under phase-1, a terminal comprising a 460-metre container jetty and a 300-metre multi-purpose jetty will be built.

The terminal, which will have a deep navigation channel, will allow the berthing of container ships up to 350-metres long and capable of carrying 8,200 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers.

The Chattogram port can currently allow feeder container ships of only up to 200-metre with at best 2,500 TEU capacity.

These transport export containers to hub ports in Colombo, Singapore, Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas, where mother ships arrive.

Port users hope that such a facility will significantly reduce the cost and time of foreign trade as exports and imports will not have to depend on transhipment ports.

Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA) Vice-President Khairul Alam Suzan pointed out one of the Matarbari port's key advantages.

It will be able to accommodate container ships which are over three times larger than the feeder ships that arrive at Chattogram at present, he said.

"Such berthing facilities will reduce transportation costs and, most importantly, direct shipping services to Europe and the US could be introduced. This will place Bangladesh in a more advantageous position in international trade," he said.

CPA Member (Engineering) Commodore Kausar Rashid, also the project director, said the whole Matarbari deep-sea port will be developed in two major phases.

The first phase will have two packages and be completed by 2035, said Rashid, adding that under the two packages a container jetty, a multipurpose jetty and three other jetties to handle LNG, LPG and liquid cargo would be developed.

The second package is expected to be completed by 2041. By then, the port will have turned into an important commercial and industrial hub, according to project documents.

Meanwhile, the government published a gazette on April 1 informing that a 17-member coordination committee, headed by the principal secretary to the chief adviser, would coordinate the activities of a fast-track project titled "Moheshkhali-Matarbari Infrastructure Development Initiative".