The High Court on Wednesday asked the government to explain in four weeks why the Chattogram Port Authority鈥檚 move to award the operation of the New Mooring Container Terminal to a foreign company without competitive bidding should not be declared illegal.
The court also asked the government to explain why it excluded the local container handling operators from the process.
Lawyers observed that by excluding the local container handling operators from the process, the government violated the Bangladesh Public-Private Partnership Act 2015 and the 2017 policy for implementing government-to-government projects.
The shipping ministry secretary, Chattogram Port Authority chairman, Public-Private Partnership Authority chief executive officer and DP World FZE, a Jabel Ali Free Zone Company, managing director were asked to respond to the rule.
The bench of Justice Md Habibul Gani and Justice Sk Tahsin Ali issued the rule after hearing a March 20 petition filed by the Bangladesh Jubo Arthanitibid Forum president Mirza Walid Hossain.
Lawyers Zainul Abedin, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Kayser Kamal and Ahsanul Karim argued that awarding the contract to DP World, a 100 per cent foreign-owned company, without an open tender undermined transparency and posed a threat to national interests.
Lawyer Ahsanul told reporters that the past Awami League government signed a memorandum of understanding with DP World, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, in 2019 without following proper procedures.
He said that the interim government, which assumed office after the ouster of the authoritarian Awami League regime on August 5, 2024, was now pressing to implement that deal instead of halting it.
He urged the court to declare the terminal handover move illegal and ensure that any contract for operating the terminal follows fair and competitive bidding under the PPP Act and G2G policy.
Lawyer Kayser contended that the interim government was continuing with the plan to hand over the container handling operation to a foreign company despite strong objection against the move from some major political parties in the country.
In response, deputy attorney general Md Mohaddesh-Ul-Islam Tutul and Chattogram Port Authority lawyer Mohammed Helal Uddin argued that no final decision had been made yet in this regard.
Called the petition 鈥榩remature鈥�, they said that the Bangladesh Navy was currently operating the terminal and would do so for the next six months.
