Amid growing concern over unused land and mounting scrutiny following media reports on environmental destruction in Mirsarai, the government has cancelled the proposed Indian economic zone projects in Mirsarai and Mongla and plans to reclaim forest land for reforestation.
The government has cancelled the proposed Indian Economic Zone projects in Mirsarai and Mongla after years of inaction and no response from the Indian side, officials said.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority and Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority Executive Chairman Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun told The Climate Watch that the Indian Economic Zone had been dropped from the government-to-government framework.
The cancellation comes amid growing scrutiny over land use and environmental costs in Mirsarai. Investigative reports published by The Business Standard on August 5 and The Climate Watch on August 6, titled “Mirsarai Economic Zone: A trade-off between development and environmental destruction,” drew attention to the ecological damage linked to industrial expansion in the area and raised wider public concern over the allocation of land for foreign-backed projects.
Moreover, Bangladesh’s High Court on September 09, 2025, ordered an immediate halt to all further construction and development at the controversial Mirsarai Economic Zone, now renamed the National Special Economic Zone (NSEZ), after a writ petition accused authorities of illegally destroying thousands of acres of protected forest and coastal mangroves in Chattogram.
The decision is likely to be seen as part of a broader government move to reclaim or repurpose land left unused under stalled economic zone initiatives.
“The Indian Economic Zone was largely at a preliminary or conceptual stage,” Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun said. “Land had been identified and there were discussions about appointing a contractor, but no formal agreement was signed.”
He said a separate project had been undertaken to establish the Indian Economic Zone in Mirsarai, but it saw no progress. “The project tenure expired in June, and the Line of Credit funding allocated for it has also been cancelled,” he said.
Under a 2015 memorandum of understanding between Bangladesh and India, two economic zones were planned under BEZA in Mirsarai, Chattogram and Mongla, Bagerhat, on a government-to-government basis with financing from India’s Line of Credit. Bangladesh had allocated 900 acres in Mirsarai and 110 acres in Mongla for the projects.
In 2019, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the Mirsarai Indian Economic Zone project, with an estimated cost of around Tk965 crore for land development, access roads, administrative buildings and service infrastructure. Of that, Tk915 crore was expected to come from India’s Line of Credit.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Ministry of Water Resources, told The Climate Watch, “We have taken note of the investigation carried out by the news portals and the massive forest destruction in Mirsarai. As part of the ongoing process of reclaiming unused land, we are planning to take back the unused forest land in the area. We also intend to begin reforestation, as restoring this forest is crucial to protecting coastal communities and preserving biodiversity.”
Sharif Jamil, coordinator of Waterkeepers Bangladesh, said, “We welcome the government’s decision to reclaim the forest land, but we also demand exemplary punishment for those responsible for destroying this forest.”
