The project on ICD relocation to the industrial heartland is also meant for catering increasing container demands, sources said, but the time-consuming G2G model with China and Japan tried before as well as land-acquisition dilemmas held back its progress.

The sources said the Dhiramsram project, initiated in 2016, could not make progress due to “non-cooperation from funding sources, local people regarding land acquisition etc”.

As such, Bangladesh Railways had to procrastinate– sometimes changed the plan of construction under government-to-government arrangement and sometimes under public-private partnership or PPP. “But none worked,” said one official concerned.

Now the state-owned agency is working to get loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) after two missions were completed last August and September

Shifting the ICD from Kamalapur station is also necessitated to set up the planned multimodal transport hub at the same venue under public-private partnership.

Bangladesh Railways (BR) has already made some progress on the MMTH project under which public, mass and high-speed train services will be accommodated in an over 300-acre area.

Officials have said the ADB has assured of funding US 250 million for the infrastructure development of the ICD.

However, sources said, despite some progress in the fund arrangement, approval for the Dhirarsram ICD land-acquisition project has been pending since 2020.

“The planning commission has been dilly-dallying in approving the project, asking the BR to reconsider the site selection to other places,” said one of the sources, seeking anonymity.

They proposed to shift toward Purbachal on ground that Gazipur is now a city corporation where urban setup will be highly necessary in the near future while the ICD land requirement is high.

But an official source said a recent meeting with Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which was presided over by the Principal Secretary, ruled out such scope as ICD needs railway-track stations nearby

They also noted that the feasibility study done by the ADB also proposed the site “considering factories nearby”.

The BR needs 222 acres of land for the Dhirarsram ICD and land- acquisition cost was estimated Tk 34.02 billion.

Official sources said the development-project proposal has yet to get approval though BR sent it by meeting all queries of the Planning Commission on February 7, 2022 after the project-evaluation committee meeting.

The Dhirarsram ICD was first listed under the G2G model after the Bangladesh and Chinese governments had signed a memorandum of understanding on October 14 2016.

But the BR enlisted the project under the G2G PPP platform with Japan for “not getting any response from the Chinese government”.

Japan later dropped the project from its list selected as possible G2G PPP projects end of 2019.

In the meantime, a Dubai-based logistics company also showed interest in investing in the project under the G2G PPP arrangement, which also did not work out.

The officials now say they expect development on the ICD project as an ADB mission to finalise the funding will arrive soon. “We expect the loan- agreement signing soon,” says one official.

He says after the PMO office meeting, a plan has been taken to develop all related ICD infrastructures under the ADB fund and operate the ICD under the PPP modality.