Govt clears 15-year DP World deal to run Chattogram Port’s NCT

The government has given in-principle approval to a 15-year agreement with Dubai-based DP World to operate and maintain the New Mooring Container Terminal, or NCT, at Chattogram Port.

With it, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government is pushing ahead with a long-debated plan to bring one of Bangladesh’s busiest container facilities under a foreign operator.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal on Thursday at a meeting chaired by Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, according to officials.

The proposed agreement also covers the NCT’s overflow container yard.

Under the financial terms presented to the committee, DP World will pay the government an upfront fee of $50 million.

A quarter of that amount will be paid when the agreement is signed, while the remaining 75% will be due before DP World begins operations, Shipping Ministry officials said.

The company will also pay a fixed annual fee of $750,000, which will rise by 2.4% each year.

DP World will be required to invest at least $90 million in the terminal during the first 10 years of the agreement.

The operator has proposed a tiered royalty ranging from $42.50 to $141.50 for each TEU — the standard measure for a 20-foot shipping container — depending on the average revenue generated per container.

The proposal also includes a minimum revenue guarantee of $52 million.

Bangladesh has proposed that any additional revenue generated through future tariff increases be split equally between the government and DP World, officials said.

The agreement would mark a major change in the management of one of Chattogram Port’s most important facilities.

NCT handles about 44% of the port’s container traffic. Chattogram Port handled around 3.2 million TEUs in the 2024-25 financial year, making the terminal a critical part of Bangladesh’s import-export supply chain.

The terminal has four container berths and an adjacent overflow yard. Earlier project documents envisaged a 15-year operating period, after a transition of up to six months.

NCT is currently operated on an interim basis by Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, an enterprise of the Bangladesh Navy.

DP World had earlier sought operating rights for 30 years even though previous financial calculations had been based on a 15-year concession. Negotiations resumed after the current government took office.

The plan has faced sustained opposition from sections of port workers and employees.

As recently as September, BNP-affiliated workers’ organisations demanded that the government halt negotiations with DP World and hold talks with workers before taking a final decision.

The previous interim government led by Muhammad Yunus had pushed the DP World plan but the process became entangled in protests and litigation during its final months.

The legal battle also complicated the proposed handover. In February, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal against a High Court verdict concerning the NCT deal, with the chamber judge observing at the time that the government could not sign the contract until the appeal was disposed of.

Thursday’s approval now takes the government a significant step closer to putting DP World in charge of a terminal that handles nearly one in every two containers moving through the country’s principal seaport.

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