Capacity of Benapole and Burimari ports boosted

Export and import through two key land ports of the country Benapole and Burimari.

The benefits of implementation of government projects to develop the land ports now became visible, said concerned officials.

The congestion of traffics to cross borders has lessened, other facilities have increased. A report produced by Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry revealed the information based on study.

Project involves only taka 1.5 crore

Sources said, the estimated cost of project was taka 168 crore. Later, it was revised and fixed at taka 156 crore 90 lakh and was targeted to accomplish from 2013 to 2016. However, the project was concluded in 2019 and the total expenditure was taka 150 crore 75 lakh. Four audits were launched during the project implementation while two of them were settled completely.  

Time to unload goods lessened

The IMED reports said, freight vehicles had to wait at the ports in long queues for hours before the project was materialised. But, now the trucks can enter or exit the port in less than an hour. Alongside recruitment of skilled workers the unloading time also decreased than before.

According to the report, revenue of Benapole port jumped after the facilities were ensured.

As many as taka 26.29 crore revenue was withdrawn from this port in FY2011-12 while the figure hiked to 57.48 crore in 2019-20 fiscal year.

Revenues of Burimari land port also increased. Apart from expansion of export and import the new facilities boosted employments in the adjoining areas.

1 lakh 18 thousand 234 square kilometer RCC pavement has been constructed in Benapole port while 1 lakh 27 thousand 66 square kilometer in Burimari port. Besides, the capacity of Benapole port increased by 4 thousand metric ton and 2 thousand metric ton at Burimari port due to construction of 6 thousand 406 square kilometer and 19 thousand  transshipment shade at both the ports respectively.

The installment of modern features brought greater benefits in the ports increasing the exports and imports by 25 per cent.

Lack of maintenance

There is apparently a huge lack of proper maintenance system in the newly developed projects, the IMED report survey found. It fears of losing sustainability of the project due the maintenance deficit.

The report recommended some steps to take to ensure proper conservation of the project features. It suggested limiting Indian workers’ movement around the project area. Besides, the water plant and sanitation system also needs to be monitored regularly.

Sufficient drainage system needs to be improved to remove waterlogging in the area. To ensure safety IMED suggested keeping modern fire extinguishing system and build separate shed for chemical substances.

IMED advised to finance the maintenance and repairing of the infrastructures from the revenue budget.