Myanmar’s objection halts work on Naf Tourism Park

Development work of the Naf Tourism Park has come to a halt due to objections from Myanmar. The park was supposed to be constructed on Jaliyar Dwip, an island at the mouth of the Naf river. Myanmar has objected to sand extraction from the Naf river for the construction of the park.

Naf Tourism Park is one of several tourist centres being constructed by Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA). The government acquired the land on Jaliar Dwip for the Naf Tourism Centre after a long legal battle with former member of the parliament (MP) Abdur Rahman Bodi. The area of the island is 291 acres.

According to BEZA, the government approved the master plan for the Naf Tourism Park on 19 February 2020. There were plans to build hotels and eco-cottages, cable cars, hanging bridges and floating jetties there. BEZA also has plans to construct a children's amusement park and an underwater restaurant there.

BEZA chief executive officer Sheikh Yusuf Harun visited the Naf Tourism Park last month and prepared a report on this. He said in the report that the island has turned into a buffalo grazing pasture now. The development work has come to a halt.

Speaking to Prothom Alo at his office on Sunday, BEZA CEO Sheikh Yusuf Harun said, “The cost will be much higher if sand is extracted from alternative sources and we can’t go take that option.”

Jaliar Dwip is has Myanmar on one side and the Netong hill of Bangladesh on the other. BEZA considered this as a potential tourism park. According to the authority, the work on land development for the park started in 2020. An firm named MM Builders got the contract for the work. They already had completed 50 per cent of the filling work by extracting sand from the Naf river.

According to the sources in BEZA, Myanmar officially informed the foreign ministry of Bangladesh of this objection to this in early 2022. Following that, the foreign ministry informed the BEZA. Meanwhile, the contracting firm left without finishing the filling work, finding no alternative source.

BEZA officials say that the Myanmar government objected and said that dredging in the Naf river would require a mutual agreement between the two countries. They also reminded Bangladesh of a bilateral agreement signed in 1962 on withdrawal of the water of the Naf river and other issues.

Notably, Myanmar also objected to the extraction of sand from the Naf river for the construction of Sabrung in the Teknaf upazila in 2019. Following that, BEZA collected sand from alternative sources from areas adjacent to the Shah Porir Dwip.

Following the objection from Myanmar, BEZA CEO Sheikh Yusuf Harun visited the project site early 2022.

Speaking to Prothom Alo in this regard, “We saw that Myanmar too was dredging their part. Later, we objected this, and they stopped dredging too.”

The part of the Naf Tourism Park, which was filled, is now being washed away, said the BEZA officials.

They further said the work on building a boundary enclosing the entire 22 acres of land was also underway along with the landfill work. However, the contracting firm left without finishing that work.

There is no exact estimate as to how much the government has spent for this project. However, BEZA officials estimated that around Tk 300 million have been spent so far on various work, including feasibility study, landfill and constructing a boundary wall.

BEZA sources said that the government wants to give a contract to a foreign company instead of leaving Naf Tourism Park unused. The government wants to give the work to a company which will take charge of everything, from land development to construction of the entire infrastructure. Two investment companies, one of Turkey and the other of Germany, showed interest in the project. However, they are unresponsive now.

BEZA prefers China to invest in Naf Tourism Park. The authority sent a letter to the Chinese embassy asking to select an investment company for the Naf Tourism Park.

BEZA feels if a Chinese company gets the work, then they will be able to persuade Myanmar to extract sand from Naf.

Speaking to Prothom Alo in this regard, BEZA CEO Sheikh Yousuf Harun said, “There is no response as yet.”

*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu