By Audity Falguni
The Chittagong seaport contributes as the prima facie maritime gateway for Bangladesh, dealing with approximately 92% of the country’s total trade volume. Situated on the banks of the river Karnaphuli, it manages over 70 percent of Bangladesh's export-import trade, and has been used by neighboring states like India, Nepal and Bhutan for transshipment. The port has a registered history which dates back to ancient Roman accounts.
Looking at the annals of history reveals that Chittagong seaport is one of the world’s ancient most ports with a natural harbor over millennium which used to appear on old Greek and Roman atlases, including even Greek astronomer Ptolemy’s map. In the 2nd century, Chittagong harbor was first identified in great astronomer Ptolemy's map which notified the harbor as one of the finest in the orient. It is the most occupied port of Bay of Bengal which has been prevailing since the 4th century BCE. The city of Chittagong encircles the port.
Chittagong’s fine natural harbour was known to the Mediterranean world from the early Common Era and to Arab sailors by the 10th century. It was called Porto Grande by Portuguese and Venetian voyagers and was described by João de Barros in 1552 as “the most famous and wealthy city of the Kingdom of Bengal.” It has been generally identified with the city of Bengala described by early Portuguese and other writers (https://www.britannica.com/place/Chittagong).
Situated on the southern branch of the Silk Road, the sea city of Chittagong was once home to the ancient independent Buddhist kingdoms of Bengal like Samatata and Harikela. Later it was conquered by successive rulers like the Gupta Empire, the Gauda Kingdom, the Pala Empire, the Chandra Dynasty, the Sena Dynasty and the Deva Dynasty of eastern Bengal.
Early medieval period
Arab Muslims had maritime relations and commercial exchanges with the port since as early as the nineth century. By 1154, our Chittagong had a thriving shipping route towards Basra and thus connected with the Abbasaid era capital city of Baghdad, as noted by Muhammad al-Idrisi. Medieval Chittagong gradually evolved or flourished to be a hub for maritime commerce with distant lands like China, Sumatra, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Southwest Asia and East Africa. It was noteworthy for its medieval trades in pearls, silk, muslin, rice, bullion, horses and gunpowder via the oceanic route.
Great voyager Ibn Battuta travelled to our seaport city in 1345. Niccolò de' Conti, from Venice, too arrived here at approximately the same time like Battuta. The port is also acknowledged in the travelogues of Chinese discoverers like Xuanzang and Ma Huan. The historical port had naval trade with Africa, Europe, China and Southeast Asia. Sultan Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah granted authorization for the Portuguese settlement in Chittagong in 1528.
Portuguese era
Portuguese ships from Goa and Malacca started anchoring in the port city by16th century. The Slave trade and piracy had a boom and the neighboring island of Sandwip was conquered in 1602. In 1615, the Portuguese Navy won over a joint Dutch East India Company and Arakanese fleet near the coastlines of Chittagong. However, the Mughal conquest of Chittagong in 1666 ended the Portuguese control of more than 130 years in the Chittagong port cum the sea city.
Mughal period
The Mughal Army won over the Arakanese Army and successfully annexed Chittagong to the Mughal Empire in 1666. They started to build the city up in an organized and planned method. The city remained under the control of the Nawabs of Bengal till 1793 when the East India Company secured absolute dominance of the former Mughal province of Bengal.
British rule cum modernization of Chittagong seaport
The modern Chittagong port was established in 1887 under the Port Commissioners Act during the British colonial regime. The port commenced its formal operations under the auspices of a commissioner in 1888. Its busiest trade links were with British Burma (today’s Myanmar), including the ports of Akyab and Rangoon (today’s Yangoon) ; and other Bengali ports, including Calcutta, Dhaka and Narayanganj. In the year 1889–90 the port used to handle exports worth about 125,000 tons in total. The Strand Road was built beside the harbor. Between 1905 and 1911, Chittagong was the chief seaport of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The Bay of Bengal emerged to be one of the busiest shipping hubs in the world.
After the partition of 1947, the governor general of the Dominion of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, paid a visit to Chittagong and underscored its significance and probable potential. The Chittagong Port Trust was formed in East Pakistan in 1960. But during the glorious Liberation War of 1971, around 100 Bengali employees of the Chittagong Port were killed. The Soviet Pacific Fleet was assigned with mine clearing and salvage operations in the port after the war.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Chittagong Senior Sailor Yuri Redkin of former Soviet Union died on 13 July 1973 while clearing and de-mining the waters of our Chittagong port.
Growth of heavy industry and logistics in the Chittagong Metropolitan Area in the post-Independence years largely benefited the port.
A major expansion took place with the construction of the New Mooring Terminal in the first decade of the 21st century. However, the port makes headlines in local and global media for the recent Interim government’s decision to waive the management responsibility of three key terminals at Chittagong Port to foreign companies.
Recent government decision to lease out three terminals of Chittagong port to foreign companies
Bangladesh government decides to hand over the Chattogram Port’s Laldia and New Mooring Container Terminals (NCT), along with the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Keraniganj, Dhaka to foreign operators by December, confirmed Mohammad Yusuf, Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping, according to various news reports on October 12. Of the three terminals, Laldia will be leased out for 30 years and New Mooring as well as Pangaon will be leased out for 25 years.
The newspapers and online medias which published the report with adequate citation from the Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping include the Daily Star, the Business Standard, BD News 24.com, BD Voice English and others.
The government advocates the handover of the terminals will enhance port efficiency, redress long-standing, structural barriers and reduce high operational costs.
Emphasizing the larger investment scenario, Shipping Secretary mentioned low efficiency at the ports is a major cause behind Bangladesh's low foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in comparison to fellow countries in the region. He compared the huge gap of FDI inflows between Bangladesh (mere $3 billion in FDI), Vietnam ($18 billion) and India ($28 billion) in 2023 as an example to the press.
He observed that this low FDI inflow is caused by structural barriers like control of the Chattogram port by syndicates for last 50 years. The government wishes to remove such barriers and welcome the international terminal operators to enhance efficiency by December.
The logistics cost of Bangladesh is 15-16 percent of GDP, one of the largest on the globe, while most states average around only 8 percent, he mentioned.
The secretary underscored the existing inefficiencies of the present port authority, indicating that the average logistics cost in Bangladesh is 15%, in comparison to the global average of 7%. The prevailing "berthing time" at Chittagong Port is near about four days, when it is even less than a day at Sri Lankan ports.
He, in addition, emphasized that upscaling of port efficiency would help local businesses to flourish in spite of sudden tariff hike. Though the tariff increase will augment costs by $170-$180 per container, but if the ship turnaround time is lowered by even one day after the foreign operator is recruited, businesses will save around $15,000 in ship rent for that day, the Secretary explained.
The secretary thus tried to explain the government stance to enhance Chittagong Port’s tariff rates by an average of 40% to set the operation profitable for foreign companies as the decision was based on the recommendations from an accredited consultant.
He ended his speech mentioning that the port needs to deal with 5.36 million TEUs of containers by 2035, which is not possible without support of the foreign companies. But when asked by the media if the government had carried any research on the estimated amount of foreign direct investment that would come in Bangladesh every five years via the foreign operators, he admitted that they had still no such information.
The Secretary, in addition, highlighted the intensive container congestion at the Chittagong port where out of 13 gates, only six have scanning machines and three or four are frequently out of order.
The Secretary added that agreements concluded with foreign firms may be disseminated online if required necessary to maintain transparency.
Increasing concern and criticism against the decision
Meantime, the government decision has combusted increasing concern and criticism from various corners of the society. Specialists observe that entrusting sensitive national infrastructure to foreign companies without efforts to build domestic efficiency enfeebles long-term national interests.
The decision of yielding the management of Chittagong port to foreign firms has already attracted cutting criticism from political parties like the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami, and also from principal business associations like the BGMEA and the BKMEA.
BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, in a statement on 18 May, said handing over the management of Chattogram Port to foreigners "is not the responsibility of an interim government" and that such a decision "must be taken by a parliament or government elected by the people." Similarly, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman said during a meeting in Moulvibazar on 25 May that his party had opposed the decision to hand over port operations to foreigners, terming it contrary to national interests (https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/govt-sign-deals-foreign-firms-december-operate-3-ctg-port-termina).
Lest we should not forget that Awami League demanded for declaration of the Chittagong port to be the ‘Principal Seaport of Pakistan’ instead of the Karachi port during the Pakistan period.
Even Professor Anu Muhammad, one of the celebrated public figures who had been passionately supported the July Movement of 2024, said on Saturday that handing over the New Mooring Terminal of Chittagong Port to foreigners without a bid or tender unleashes a security risk for the country.
Source : (https://glottis.global/2025/10/13/chittagong-ports-foreign-terminal-operations-by-2025/).
Meantime, a global desk report of ‘India Today’ on September 25th, suggests: ‘Chittagong Port, Bangladesh’s largest maritime hub, is no longer a quiet gateway for trade. Once a symbol of regional commerce and connectivity, it has become the epicentre of strategic manoeuvring in the Bay of Bengal. U.S. transport aircraft, Chinese submarines, and Russian warships are converging here, turning a commercial port into a chessboard of global power.’
‘’The port’s location is what makes it so critical. Just a few hundred kilometres from India’s northeastern states and the Siliguri Corridor, the narrow lifeline known as the Chicken’s Neck connecting mainland India to its seven northeastern states-Chittagong sits at a vantage point over vital shipping lanes, energy transit routes, and maritime chokepoints. Whoever controls influence here can monitor India, track its trade, and potentially threaten the security of its strategic corridors,’ the report adds (https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/is-chittagong-port-becoming-a-danger-to-indias-eastern-borders-2793548-2025-09-25).
Conclusion:
Chinese traveler Xuanzang depicted the largest port city of Bangladesh as "a sleeping beauty rising from mist and water" in the 7th century. Let us not lease it out to any foreign power- be it USA, China, Russia or India and keep it our own on the very question of independence and sovereignty!
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