Feni Economic Zone

Feni  EZ is spread over an area of 7,000 acres and it is located in Sonagazi upazila, Feni district of Chittagong division. Currently, major population of Feni district is engaged in agriculture, fish rearing and animal husbandry. A significant population from Feni district also travel overseas in search of employment. As per Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, 24,068 people went overseas from Feni district in search of employment in 2017. This figure is significantly higher than the national district wise average of 15,566. The industries in this district comprise cottage industry, bamboo and cane industry, textile industry, rice mill, jute mill etc. Key location attribute of the proposed EZ site is its location along the Dhaka-Chittagong industrial and transport corridor, Bangladesh’s most important highway Dhaka-Chittagong Highway (N1) passes in proximity to this site. According to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study conducted in 2013, 90% of Bangladesh’s goods for export and import passes through this highway. Around 30,000 vehicles (highest among all road alignments in the country) pass through this road on a daily basis,which includes trucks carrying cargoes of apparels, light machinery, chemicals, steel roads, agricultural produce, processed food, cement etc. This strategic location will help industries in proposed EZ site, cater to the consumer market in Dhaka and form upstream and downstream linkages with industries along Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. Industries in proposed EZ will also have an access to markets and industries in North East India due to its close proximity to the Indian state of Tripura.

Site visits revealed that the EZ site is currently split into 2 parts due to a shallow river channel created by Feni River, which remains mostly dry throughout the year due to creation of Muhuri dam on the upstream of this river. However, during monsoons when the volume of water stored in this dam increases beyond its capacity, water from this dam is released resulting in increased volume of water flow downstream. In order to ensure connectivity between the 2 land parcels of this EZ, provision of establishing bridge has been captured in the Master Planning section of this report.

Proposed site can be reached from Dhaka-Chittagong highway by accessing Feni-Sonagazi Zilla Road (Z1034) from Lalpol Bus stand in Feni Sadar Upazila. This zilla road is a single lane bituminous road with a width of 5.54 m. A journey of 17 km on this road leads to Sonagazi Upazila. To reach the proposed EZ site from Sonagazi Upazila, a single lane village road, Chor Chandia needs to be accessed which is a bituminous single lane road. Journey of 7 km on this single lane road will lead to a 1.5 km long stretch of single lane dirt road which connects to the western border of the proposed EZ site. Another alternate route to access the proposed EZ site from Dhaka-Chittagong highway is to access the Muhuri Project Road from School Road Bus Stop in Zoraworgonj village in Mirsarai Upazilla. Muhuri Project Road is a single lane bituminous road originating from Old Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. Journey of around 10 km on Muhuri Project Road leads to the Muhuri Project Tourist spot-cum- sluice gate over Feni River. A single lane village road branches out towards south from Muhuri Project Road just before the Feni River. Journey of 2 km on this dirt road leads to the proposed EZ site.

Belonia Land Port (under development) is the nearest land port located at around 60 km north of the proposed EZ site. As per current information available, this port is yet to be operationalized although a Development Project Proposal (DPP) has been passed and land acquisition is in progress. Once operational, industries in Proposed EZ will be able to leverage this port to boost their trade with India. This land port, by virtue of its location, can also allow import of raw materials from North-Eastern states of India for the industries in the EZ site. Currently land ports at Bibirbazar (85 km north of the EZ site) and Akhaura (155 km north of the EZ site) are the nearest operational land ports to the EZ site. Goods like cement, steel, processed food, beverages, tiles etc., are transported to Tripura through these ports. Currently there are no mechanized goods handling facility available at these ports, and goods are handled manually. Mechanization of cargo handling facility in Bibirbazar, Akhaura, and Belonia land ports would result in faster processing of goods through these ports.

The site has access to river based ferry ghat at Chandpur on the Meghna River which is around 130 km from the site and is accessible from road via Dhaka-Chittagong highway followed by Comilla-Chandpur Highway which is a 2-laned bituminous road. This port is equipped to handle movement of heavy vehicles and currently has a capacity to handle 6,500 MT/ month of bulk cargo and 6,500 MT/month of general cargo. This ferry ghat has an available draft of around 3.5 meters and is well connected to Shariatpur Ferry Ghat, Barisal Ferry Ghat and all other major river ports of Bangladesh through widespread waterway network crisscrossing the country. Industries in the proposed EZ can make use of this port to transport goods like clinker, fly-ash, light engineering products, textile, RMG etc.

Also, proposed EZ at Feni has access to a water front in Sandwip Channel, having a draft of around 3-4 meters, where berthing facilities can be developed for vessels carrying raw material for heavy industries and clinker for cement factories. Developing a jetty here, will enable direct riverine transportation of goods across Bangladesh and ports of call in India.

Chittagong Sea port is the nearest seaport, which is located approximately 75 km from the proposed EZ. This port is also accessible via National Highway, N1. This seaport is the most important trade-facilitating infrastructure in Bangladesh. The fact that on an average 81.22% of Bangladesh’s international trade takes place through Chittagong Port underlines the strategic importance of this seaport. Chittagong Port has all major logistics infrastructure available like weighbridges, railway wagons for container transport, railway terminal, container freight stations, dredgers, tug boats and specialized berths for handling POL, grains, cement, urea, ammonia, containers, general cargo etc. Industries in the proposed EZ can leverage this infrastructure to achieve competitive economics when it comes to logistics cost.

The strategic importance of Chittagong Port for Bangladesh’s industries and economy is resulting in a steady rise of cargo traffic at the port. This is resulting in congestion due to which ships calling at this port often face delay in berthing by 6 to 7 days. In order to ease the burden on Chittagong Port, Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is exploring the potential to develop a new port in Mirsarai (within 60 km of proposed EZ site), which is the adjacent district to Feni. The main function of this seaport will be to act as an intermediate port/terminal, which will provide support to Chittagong Sea Port. The key purpose of this port will be to enable direct sea connectivity for industries that might come up in the region so that early and easy delivery of container and cargo can be made possible. This project is still at conceptualization stage and studies are ongoing to finalize the location, capacity and other features of this port. Setting up of the port in Mirsarai would be beneficial for industries that would come up in the proposed EZ site. This proximity should encourage manufacturers to set up export-oriented industries in the proposed EZ.

Nearest international airport to the EZ site is Shah Amanat International Airport located in Chittagong at a distance of 75 km from the EZ site. It is Bangladesh’s 2^nd largest airport. This airport has manual handling facilities for cargo and provides services to more than 12 lakh people annually. Bangladesh’s most important airport Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport (HSIA) is located at a distance of 180 km from the EZ site. Both the airports can be accessed via Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.

Chittagong railway station is the nearest junction railway station from the proposed EZ, located at a distance of around 75 km, where cargo-handling facility is present currently. Access to Chittagong junction railway station takes place through Dhaka-Chittagong highway and time of travel is ~2.5 hours. Chittagong Railway station is connected to Inland Container Depot at Dhaka railway station. Boraiyarhat station is the closest rail head at a distance of around 15 km from the site. It is a small station with no cargo handling facility and caters to movement of passengers, only.

Location of Feni EZ site in between Dhaka and Chittagong allows easy access to all modes of transportation. However, last mile connectivity to this EZ site will have to be improved in order to enable smooth movement of heavy vehicles.

Site assessment indicates that proposed EZ would have access to steady source of power from Mirsarai 132/33 kV power Grid substation, which is currently under construction. A Main Receiving sub-station (MRSS) of 230/132 /33/11 kV substation could be established in the site in order to meet the EZ’s power requirements. Due to EZ site’s location in a coastal area, ground water would have high salinity, hence, a desalination plant is recommended to be established in order to draw water from the sea. Presently, there is no existing gas pipeline in Sonagazi and the nearest gas station is in Feni at a distance of 25 km with an approx. capacity of 50 Mn cu.ft / day. State controlled Gas Transmission Company Ltd. (GTCL), which is responsible for establishing gas pipelines across Bangladesh, is in the process of laying down 181 km long, 36 inch dia. gas pipeline from Chittagong-Feni-Bakhrabad in order to supply imported gas from LNG terminal established at Moheshkhali near the southern tip of Bangladesh. GTCL has already established 91 km pipeline from Moheshkhali to Anowara. Construction is underway to lay down 30 km of pipeline from Anowara to Fouzdarhat in Chittagong. Once GTCL lays down the pipeline from Moheshkhali to Feni, sourcing gas from the pipeline to proposed EZ site can be made possible. Basic social infrastructure is available in this region for unskilled and semi-skilled labour. However, this region lacks in term of quality social infrastructure (suitable for expats, executives and skilled human resources), which is available in Chittagong. Provisions have been made in the master plan to include adequate social infrastructure facilities that could serve the needs of skilled personnel and expats working in the proposed EZ.

In line with the identified transport infrastructure, access to utility and prevailing economy in the region of the proposed EZ, a framework of industry assessment has been formulated.

• This framework takes into cognizance availability of factors of production (logistics, utility and manpower), agricultural & natural resources, and possible industrial linkages in site surrounding context. Based on the regional landscape and site intrinsic features, suitability of various industrial sectors have been assessed. Desk based study in synthesis with stakeholder consultations with domestic and foreign manufacturers indicate the following sectors as the potential industrial mix for the proposed EZ –

Heavy industries

• Heavy Machineries, iron & steel
• Ship building and ship breaking
• Petroleum and petroleum products

Other industries

• Textile & RMG
• Leather & Leather Products
• Electrical & Electronics
• Automobile & Accessories
• Light Machinery, Equipment & Furniture
• Non-Metallic Mineral products