Dhaka unveils long-term plans to build deep sea port

October 8th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has urged India to give it transit to Nepal and Bhutan to boost bilateral and South Asian regional trade and connectivity. The subject will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits New Delhi shortly.

September 15th, 2009 DHAKA - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government is facing protests over its decision to award contracts to foreign firms for oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal. It now plans to get international expertise to improve its ports and build new highways.

September 12th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has termed the meeting with her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna "groundbreaking" as New Delhi has agreed to Dhaka's request for connectivity with land-locked Nepal and Bhutan.

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Ahead of Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's visit to India Sep 7, Dhaka wants more information on Delhi's plan to build Tipaimukh dam in Manipur state, a senior official has said. Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes described last month's visit to India by a parliamentary team as "useful" and said the data supplied by India was being examined by a committee of experts, New Age newspaper reported Sunday.

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has decided not to recognise Kosovo as an independent Balkan state, rejecting a request from the US. Dhaka has made it clear that it would like to keep away (from the Kosovo issue), New Age newspaper said Sunday quoting Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes.

July 29th, 2009 DHAKA - Record rainfall in Bangladesh capital Dhaka has claimed the lives of at least nine people, besides disrupting normal lifeb extensively. Reports in several Bangladeshi dailies, including the Daily Star and The Independent quoted the Met Office as saying on Tuesday that Dhaka received 290 mm of rainfall over a six-hour period.

July 14th, 2009 DHAKA - Despite bursting at the seams and poor civic amenities, Dhaka, the four centuries-old city that is now the capital of Bangladesh, remains the country's "most attractive" city, says a survey. Dhaka gets 7.3 points in a scale of 10 -- well below the international criteria of competitiveness of a city in terms of cost of doing business, dynamics of local economy, human resources and training, infrastructures, and quality of life.

May 15th, 2009 KOLKATA - The West Bengal government is planning to build a small port at the mouth of the Hooghly river, a senior government official said here Friday. The government earlier planned a deep sea port in the region as the nearby Haldia port was in bad shape due to sharp fall in draught.

March 24th, 2009 DHAKA - New Delhi has asked Dhaka to allow transportation of heavy machinery and other equipment through the latter's Ashuganj river port to construct a power plant in India's northeastern state of Tripura. New Delhi may be shifting emphasis to river transit from its earlier plea for land transit that Dhaka finds contentious and politically sensitive, New Age newspaper said Tuesday.

March 5th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The Kandla Port Trust (KPT) in Gujarat will construct four new dry cargo berths at the port at an investment of Rs.702 crore (Rs.7.02 billion), officials said. The berths, to be built under the public private partnership (PPP) and build-own-transfer (BOT) models, would be operational in two years, they said.

February 27th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Indonesia-based Salim group, part of a consortium that is constructing a chemical hub at Nayachar island near Haldia in West Bengal, is also interested in building a deep river port near the site, a senior state official said here Thursday. 'They (Salim group) want to build a deep port, they will give us a detailed proposal, which we will examine and then seek the central government's clearance,' Principal Industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen told reporters.

February 14th, 2009 DHAKA - Dhaka and New Delhi are set to renew the inland water transit and trade deal shortly and may add Ashuganj as the ninth port of call for easy transport of Indian goods from Kolkata to Agartala through Bangladesh. With the addition of Ashuganj, Indian goods could move faster from Kolkata to Tripura in India's northeast through the Akhaura-Agartala railway route, New Age newspaper said Sunday quoting unnamed diplomatic sources.

January 29th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has engaged a New Zealand-based consultant to design an over-5-km-long bridge on the Padma river to improve connectivity with its south-western region to eventually link up with the Trans-Asia highway, a media report said Friday. The 5.58 km long and 25 m wide bridge on the Padma will connect the southwestern area with Dhaka at Mawa in Munshiganj and Janjira in Madaripur.

January 12th, 2009 DHAKA - Joint fight against terrorism and some of the long-pending bilateral issues will be discussed when Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Dhaka in early February, an official said. Announcing Monday the tentative programme of the minister's visit, Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said the main concern of the Indian government was to ensure security in the region by eradicating terrorism, New Age newspaper reported.

December 25th, 2008 DHAKA - Bangladesh has deployed two war ships in the Bay of Bengal after a standoff with India over hydrocarbon exploration in the waters, according to a media report quoting a navy official. The row began as three survey vessels backed by the Indian Navy started exploration early Thursday, eight nautical miles inside what Dhaka claims is its maritime territory near the Fairway Buoy navigation channel around Block 14 in the southwest of the Bay.