The BEZA on Thursday apprised the aspirant bidders of infrastructure and utilities like gas, roads and environmental aspects of the proposed Mirershorai economic zone. At a pre-bidding meeting held at a city hotel, the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) executive chairman also highlighted the investment potentials of the zone before the interested bidders. “The economic zones will get gas connection on a priority basis,” BEZA executive chairman Paban Chowdhury said. He also informed the meeting that the BEZA has already conducted an environmental impact assessment, while the two-lane roads connecting the zone and port would be completed initially, which later would be expanded to four lanes. The pre-bid meeting was convened after issuing the special procurement notice inviting potential developers to participate in the tender, which was opened on September 27 last. The eligible firms invited to participate and submit their proposal in response to the RFP for a Public-Private Partnership project to Design, Build, Finance, Own, Operate and Transfer (DBFOOT) the Economic Zone on 550 acres of land provided by BEZA at Mirershorai on lease for a period of 50 years extendable on mutually agreed terms. Some of the interested bidders, however, requested the BEZA authority to extend the bid submission time, which is scheduled to end on January 18, saying they need more time to conduct their feasibility study on investment and other procedures. The bidders also wanted to know about the marketing aspects, revenue sharing procedures, whether there would be any central ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant), who would set up those and the competitiveness of their investment. The BEZA chief noted that the authority would provide all kinds of support to them, while the type of ETP will depend on the nature of industries to be set up. Explaining the uniqueness of the proposed zone at Mirershorai, Mr Chowdhury said “It’s a dream project. With a total area of over 7,000 acres, the first phase of the project will have about 550 acres of land.” There is an ample opportunity of expansion and the BEZA plans to develop 30 to 50 more zones there, he added. As part of the government’s plan to establish 100 economic zones in next 15 years, the governing body so far approved 46 economic zones aiming to attract more foreign investment and create employment and industrialisation. The site is suitable for setting up industries of garments and garments accessories, integrated textile, automobile assembling and automobile parts manufacturing, ship-building, according to BEZA. Using its own fund, the government has planned and taken a number of initiatives for further enhancing connectivity of the site with off-site infrastructure like access road and various utilities up to the boundary of the economic zone, it said. BEZA executive member Shawkat Ali and project director Md Harunur Rashid, among others, were present at the meeting.
