Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Three more landports will be handed over to private operators under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) arrangement for a period 25 years by 2009 to help boost cross border trade, officials said.
The landports that will be handed over to private operators in the second phase are Tamabil in Sylhet, Akhaura in Brahmanbaria and Burimari in Lalmonirhat.
The first meeting of Pre-qualification and Tender Evaluation Committee (PTEC) is scheduled to be held at the Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA) office in Dhaka on August 10, they added.
"We're now preparing the ground works to privatize the landports by the next year," a BLPA senior official told BBN in the capital, Dhaka.
The BLPA has earlier handed over six landports out of 12 to private operators in line with the government decision, he added.
The ports that have already been transferred through open tenders to the private operators include Sona Masjid in Chapai Nawabganj, Hili in Dinajpur, Banglabandha in Panchagarh, Bibir Bazar in Comilla, Birol in Dinajpur and Teknaf in Cox's Bazar.
The government earlier decided to hand over the operations of the country's 12 landports to the private operators in phases under the BOT arrangement to gear up cross border trade with neighboring countries.
BBN/SI/SI/AD-06August08-1:22 AM