Port city to get third bus terminal soon

Chattogram City Corporation is going to construct a bus-truck terminal, which will be the third of its kind in the city, after 30 years of constructing the second one.   

The terminal will be constructed at Kulgaon, on the outskirts of the port city. The CCC has already floated a tender for land development at the site.

Chattogram's first bus terminal was launched at Kadamtoli Intersection in 1966 and the second one at Bahaddarhat in 1993.

Kafil Uddin, former president of Chattogram Jela Sarak Paribahan Malik Group, said the buses bound for different districts from north to Chattogram used to move from Kadamtoli earlier. Now, only Noakhali-bound buses move from the terminal.

As the Bahaddarhat terminal caters to buses moving between the port city and seven upazilas in south Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and Bandarban districts, the buses bound for eight other upazilas in north Chattogram and Rangamati, Khgrachhari and other districts have to stand on road due to a lack of bus terminal.

The third bus terminal will be beneficial, said Kafil Uddin.

The new terminal will accommodate a total of 160 buses and trucks that will ply on different routes, said CCC Executive Engineer (civil) Rifatul Karim

According to CCC sources, a total of 28 acres of land at Kulgaon have been earmarked for a bus terminal in the masterplan formulated by Chattogram Development Authority in 1995. However, the CCC would develop 8.1 acres initially for this purpose.

Following this masterplan, the CCC initiated the Tk 296 crore project back in 2018, which was approved by the Ecnec in October 2018, said Rifatul Karim.

Contacted, Jasim Uddin, CCC executive engineer and deputy project director of the project, said they have already floated tender for land development.

Jasim said the deadline of the project implementation would be expired in June and so they would apply for extending period for one more year.

When asked about the delay, Jasim said the district administration could not hand over the acquired land for the project in the past five years due to some issues raised by local land owners over compensation.