CPA chairman Nizamuddin named new Navy chief

Rear Admiral Mohammad Nizamuddin Ahmed has been appointed the new Chief of Naval Staff.

Ahmed, who has been serving as the chairman of Chittagong Port Authority, was promoted to the rank of vice admiral, according to a media statement by the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) on Thursday.

His appointment will take effect from Jan 27 and his term would last until Jan 26, 2019.

Ahmed will replace Admiral Muhammad Farid Habib as the new chief.

Habib was promoted to the rank of admiral from vice admiral just ten days before his retirement, since the government has set the ranks of the chiefs of the navy and air force on a par with that of an army general.

Hailing from Madaripur, Ahmed joined the Bangladesh Navy on Jan 30, 1979.

He was commissioned on Aug 1, 1981, after graduating from the Marshal Tito Naval Academy in the then Yugoslavia.

He worked as TAS School Inspector in the Bangladesh Naval Academy, Director of Bangladesh Coastguard, and in several positions in the Navy Headquarters.

He also took part in UN peacekeeping missions.

The government appointed him chairman of the Chittagong Port Authority on Feb 26, 2012.

After the government initiated work on the construction of a sea port at Payra in Patuakhali, in 2013, he was given additional charge as chairman of that port.

Several steps were taken to speed up work at the Chittagong Port under his chairmanship. The port set a new container-handling record with infrastructural development.

Meanwhile, former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury held demonstrations alleging irregularities in the functioning of the port during Ahmed’s tenure.