Payra seaport: A Pathfinder to economy

Payra seaport is the third seaport in the country. Prime minister

Shaikh Hasina inaugurated its journey on August 13, 2016. It started
journey through acquitting stone from Fortune Bird ship.

It will open a new era for regional trade and commerce as well as for
national economy. Seaway transportation is the cheapest and most
effective transportation compared to others.

On the other hand, currently in our country shipments are operating by

the two existing ports these are Chittagong and Mongla seaport. In
contrast, these ports won't be able to handle shipping needs in the next
15 years, as according to country's GDP growth that the countries
container handling demand will triple by 2030; accordingly, fully
operational Payra port will be able to handle 75000 containers a year
which is nearly five times more than the existing capacity.

The newly opened Payra port will play a key role, as it's envisions that
Payra port would be a nerve center of the proposed Bangladesh-ChinaIndia-Myanmar Economic corridor, known as BCIM.

The construction of Payra seaport started on November 18, 2013. It's

situated in Patuakhli, 319 kilomtres south of Dhaka. The Payra port
will require a total of 7,000 acres of land. Of this, 6000 acres will be
used for port development,500 acres for total terminal and the
remaining for the resettlement of people affected by the construction of
the port.

As per the plan, the Payra seaport would be developed in three phases.
Its depth within channel 14 metre after dredging 35kilomtres of
channel would have 16-21 metre of on flow tide time while current large
port Chittagong port has maximum 9.2 metre. In Payra port 250 metres
long ships could come whereas Chittagong port maximum ability 186
metre.

When the port will fully operational it's expected that it would have 16
to 21 metre channel, a 10 kilomtres containers terminal having dry and
liquid bulk terminals, and LNG terminals.

Government aims to turn it into a deep seaport facility eventually.

Nevertheless, to reap its full benefit the government will have to link
the seaport to capital by well-built roads in several ways. Government
will create a rail road to connect Payra port to the capital Dhaka.

Meanwhile we came to know that, a British company named DP-Rail

has proposed to invest $7.5 billion to the project as Foreign Direct
Investment (FDI). The decision would probably come into effect after

conducting a meeting at premier's office. Besides, World Bank (WB) also

shows their intends to invest this project.

It would become a regional hub for trade and commerce, after all a port
can change a nation's destiny through expanding trade volume of
exports and imports as well as by creating employment.

Payra port would be a propitious port for us as it will turbocharge the

country's exports and imports by connecting to the hinterland through
river roads, will be removed unemployment by creating thousands of
jobs.