Inland Container Terminal Development to Increase Seaport’s Competitiveness in Bangladesh

Abstract

In the last decade, the growth of container port throughput of Bangladesh especially in the principal seaport Chittagong is increased significantly. This paper aims to examine the potential benefits of ICT development in the hinterland to support seaports for increasing port competitiveness against the continuous growth of port throughput. To involve in the container direct delivery activities due to poor inland intermodal connectivity, the port is facing problems in terms of congestion of vessels and containers in the port protected area and less than 5% of intermodal containers are handled in two RICTs and one rail ICD nearby the capital city Dhaka. Overall, inland freight transportation is dominated by local trucks and covered vans that resulted in congestion at the main road transport corridor Dhaka-Chittagong highway. This research is followed the conceptual model “Outside-In: Inside-Out” to develop inland freight transport network between seaport and ICT through intermodal also quantitative data analysis and site visits were performed in getting the future demand for constructing more ICTs to the hinterland of seaports. The major findings and originalities of the works are stated that intermodal freight transportation is not sufficient for sending/bringing intermodal containers to/from the final destination. The practical impact of this research will make interest the stakeholders, port authorities, government of Bangladesh and foreign investors in building ICT to develop the freight transport industry of Bangladesh.