The government is likely to scrap the construction of coal terminal through public-private-partnership initiative at Payra Port amid the lack of response from private investors in past eight years.
Officials said that the Payra Port Authority had recently submitted a proposal to the cabinet committee on economic affairs past week seeking approval for delisting the project from the PPP.
In September 2014, the same cabinet committee gave approval for implementing the project under the PPP amid expectation by the PPP authority that the involvement of private parties would ensure investment of maximum $500 million and minimum $200 million.
Now the Payra port authority has realized that a full-fledge coal terminal will not be viable after the government dropped 10 coal-fired power plant projects, with total generation capacity of 8451 MW, past year.
The Payra Port in Patuakhali, the country’s third seaport, was launched under the Payra Port Authority Act 2013 to boost economic development in the country’s southern region. The port started operating on a limited scale in 2019.
