Govt to proceed with NCT deal with DP World despite protests: Shipping adviser

The government will go ahead with the deal allowing UAE-based firm DP World to operate the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) at Chittagong Port, Shipping Adviser Brig Gen (Retd) M Sakhawat Hussain said today.

“The deal will be finalised; however, negotiations with protesting workers continue,” the adviser said at a briefing following a meeting with agitating employees at the Chattogram Port administrative building.

During the briefing, Chattogram Bandar Rokkha Sangram Parishad Coordinator Md Humayun Kabir said, “We are halting the protest for two days, considering public interest ahead of Ramzan. However, we will resume the protest from Sunday if our demands are not met by Saturday.”

“At the meeting, we told the adviser that the port cannot be given to a foreign operator, all complaints against agitating workers must be withdrawn; port chairman SM Moniruzzaman should be removed, and no action can be taken against workers in the future,” he added.

Earlier in the day, demonstrators blocked the shipping adviser’s convoy while he was travelling from Chattogram airport to the port’s administrative building via the jetty terminal.

The adviser reached Chattogram in the morning to hold separate meetings with port officials, law enforcement agencies and protesting workers amid the ongoing stalemate over the proposed deal with UAE-based firm DP World.

Around 10:30am, protesters outside port gate no. 4 surrounded him, chanting slogans against DP World, the proposed agreement, and senior officials of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), including its chairman.

Urging the protesters to engage in dialogue, Sakhawat said he had been working for the country for the past one and a half years and had never acted against national interests.

Md Ibrahim Khokan, another coordinator of Chattogram Bandar Rokkha Sangram Parishad, told the adviser that port workers were not acting against the state.

Khokan alleged that CPA Chairman SM Moniruzzaman had taken punitive measures against protest leaders over the past year and a half and demanded his removal.

The adviser urged the protesters to sit for talks inside a meeting room instead of blocking the road and assured them that he would listen to their concerns.

The demonstrators allowed him to proceed after he said he would meet them without the CPA chairman present.

Sakhawat held a meeting with them at the port’s conference room at noon after an emergency meeting with senior officials and department heads of the Chittagong Port Authority.

All operations at the port remain suspended as the indefinite work abstention by workers and employees, enforced on Tuesday (February 3), continues.

The strike followed an eight-hour stoppage observed from Saturday to Monday by workers and employees protesting against the proposed lease of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) to Dubai-based DP World. Container and cargo handling at the port’s jetties, deliveries from the yards, and vessel movements have come to a complete standstill.