Desk Report,
Shipping Advisor orders investigation into irregularities at Hili land port
The chairman of the Bangladesh Land Ports Authority has been ordered to look into the allegations of irregularities at Panama Port Link, a private company operating the Hili Land Port in Dinajpur. This was ordered by Shipping Advisor Brigadier General (Retd.) M Sakhawat Hossain during his inspection of the Hili Land Port on Saturday morning. During the inspection, the advisor spoke to officials and employees at various levels of the Land Customs Station and Panama Port Link about the port’s import-export activities. During this time, he received complaints of various irregularities and mismanagement against Panama Port Link. Based on this, he ordered Land Ports Authority Chairman Mohammad Manzarul Mannan to look into these allegations. Later, he held a meeting with revenue officers, assistant revenue officers and representatives of Panama Port Link. The meeting raised issues such as increasing the time for exporting goods from India to Bangladesh, collecting additional wages from port management companies for goods movement, revenue shortfall due to alarming decrease in import of goods and unemployment of workers.
Shipping Advisor orders investigation into irregularities at Hili land port
At the end of the meeting, the Shipping Advisor answered various questions from the media at 1:45 pm. In response to the questions of the journalists, the Advisor said, “Hili land port is a contract-based port. We are looking into how this port can be further developed. Since the agreement has been made, we cannot do anything else. The ports that we are operating have been modernized a lot. A lot of work is being done in Benapole, Bhomra, Burimari, Tamabil. As far as modernization can be done, that is far. I saw the Hili land port, I saw the Sona Masjid in Rajshahi—both are big. Both are given in the agreement. It is better to give it in the port agreement. Earlier there were 24 ports. 4 have been excluded from that, it is difficult to run all 20 ports. So we are trying to give some ports, especially 2-4 river ports, to the private sector.’
The shipping advisor also said, ‘Of the 20 ports that still exist, if I say there are no more than 12 effective ports. Where the income is 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 30,000 taka throughout the year; the cost is more than that.’
Present during the shipping advisor’s visit were, among others, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Rangpur Divisional Commissioner Arun Kumar Biswas, Assistant Commissioner of Hili Customs Station ASM Akram, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) 20th Battalion Commander Lt. Colonel Ariful Daula, Additional Superintendent of Police Anwar Hossain, Assistant Superintendent of Police of Birampur Circle Manjurul Islam, Officer-in-Charge of Police Station Nazmul Haque, Officer-in-Charge of Hili Immigration Checkpost Ariful Islam, President of Hili Land Port Import-Export Group Sakhawat Hossain, among others.
