Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is seeking a private investor to develop a second inland container terminal at Pangaon, offering 22 acres beside the existing facility near Dhaka.

The proposed terminal would add capacity for containers moving by barge between the capital and Chittagong Port, giving shippers another way to avoid the congested highway linking the two cities.

The tender calls for an operator to develop and manage the site and provide container-handling equipment and services. Bidders, or their parent companies, must have at least five years’ experience loading and discharging containers from vessels, and must have handled at least 70,000 teu a year at an inland river terminal or port.

CPA spokesperson Syed Refayet Hamim said the authority wanted to put the vacant land to work for import and export cargo, adding: “We want optimum use of the land facilitating in and outbound trade.”

Medlog Bangladesh, which operates the adjoining 26-acre terminal, plans to bid for the new site. Its parent signed a 22-year concession for the existing facility in November 2025, which opened in May this year.

ATM Anisul Millat, MD of Medlog Bangladesh, said the terminal was handling both imports and exports by barge, and added: “We will start handing DG cargo next month and provide cotton storage facility in the terminal yard by December.”

Dhaka-based garment exporter Abul Kalam Azad welcomed the prospect of another river terminal. He said: “We want faster cargo movement avoiding the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The river terminals can offer us that.”

Mr Azad also wants the terminals equipped to handle a wider range of shipments, including refrigerated cargo.

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