Fisheries and Livestock State Minister Sultan Salahuddin Tuku inspected the ongoing construction of a modern fish landing centre (fishery ghat) in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday evening, stressing the need to complete the project on time while maintaining construction quality.
The project, titled “Improvement of Fish Landing Centre of Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation in Cox’s Bazar District”, is being implemented by the Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) with financial support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
During the inspection, the minister was briefed by officials on the progress of construction, implementation activities and various measures being taken to modernise the facility.
Tuku stressed that the work should be completed within the stipulated timeframe without compromising quality.
“A modern fish landing centre will improve fish landing, storage, management and marketing facilities. This will create greater opportunities for fishermen to receive fair prices for their catch and bring positive changes to post-harvest management in the fisheries sector,” he said.
The project has an estimated cost of Tk232.83 crore, including Tk60.52 crore from the Government of Bangladesh and Tk172.31 crore as a JICA grant. It is scheduled to run from January 2024 to December 2027.
Once completed, the project is expected to double the annual fish landing capacity at the Cox’s Bazar Fish Landing Centre from 7,000 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes.
Its annual ice production capacity is also expected to increase from 5,000 tonnes to 7,500 tonnes. The project will additionally create berthing facilities for 40 more fishing boats each day and reduce the waiting time for unloading fish from trawlers by around two hours, officials said.
Officials from JICA, BFDC and the project were present during the inspection, including Haji and Ikeda, managers of Japanese contractor JDC-Konoike Joint Venture; Tuku’s private secretary Md Abubakar Sarker; BFDC Cox’s Bazar manager Habibul Islam; senior upazila fisheries officer Sujoy Pal; and deputy project director Swaib Saleheen.
Cox’s Bazar Life Report
Photo: Courtesy
