HC defers hearing on legality of giving NCT contract to DP World

The High Court today deferred until June 22 the hearing of a writ petition, which challenged the legality of the government decision to initiate the process for awarding UAE-based company DP World the contract for container handling operations at the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT).

The HC bench of Justice Md Habibul Gani and Justice Syed Mohammed Tazrul Hossain passed the order after Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman sought time for taking preparation to place arguments on the matter.

Bangladesh Jubo Arthanitibid Forum, a philanthropic organisation, submitted the writ petition as a public interest litigation to the HC on March 20, seeking its directive to ensure fair and competitive public bidding before appointing any container terminal handling operator to run the existing NCT.

The shipping secretary, chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and chief executive officer of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Authority have been mentioned as respondents in the petition.

Petitioner's lawyer Ahsanul Karim told The Daily Star that the CPA's action to initiate the process for awarding the container handling contract of the NCT to DP World, which is a 100 percent foreign company, without holding any open tender is arbitrary and a violation of the Bangladesh Public-Private Partnership Act, 2015, and the Policy for Implementing PPP Projects through Government to Government Partnership, 2017.

He said the previous government had decided to award the container handling contract of the NCT to DP World in 2019 and the current government has initiated a process to finish the job.