The interim government is pressing forward with plans to lease out the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT), the largest and most profitable terminal at Chattogram port, to the UAE’s state-owned DP World, through a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement. This initiative was originally undertaken by the Awami League government in March 2023, but was stalled in the face of the port workers’ protest. Now, the interim government is pursuing the same arrangement, under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, bypassing an open and competitive bidding process.

According to a recent Prothom Alo report, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the project’s transaction adviser. If all goes as planned, a concession agreement is scheduled for signing by November. After that, the operator will fully take over the terminal, recruit manpower, collect container handling charges, and pay the port authority an upfront fee, an annual payment, and a per-container fee. But it is not yet clear how much DP World will invest, what specific improvements it will bring, and how the revenue will be shared between the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and DP World.