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The country’s largest seaport is all set to accommodate large container vessels with a draught of 10 metres and length of 200 metres from the beginning of 2023, according to Chattogram port officials.
The berthing capacity expansion will boost the port’s container handling capacity and reduce transport costs and the turnaround time – the time required for loading and unloading of goods, said Omar Faruq, secretary to the Chittagong Port Authority.
The draught is the linear measure of the amount of sinkage or submergence of a vessel’s hull in the water.
HR Wallingford, a UK-based consultancy firm that conducts surveys and research in solving complex water-related challenges, conducted a survey in the port channel and Karnaphuli River for a year and submitted its final report to the port authority.
According to the report, the Chattogram port, using its existing infrastructure, will be able to berth 10-metre draught vessels and even bigger ones with some more dredging work.
Currently, only 9.5-metre draught vessels, 190 metres long, are able to anchor at the port jetty. These vessels carry 2,500 to 2,600 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers.
But 10-metre draught ships will be able to carry 3,800 to 4,000 containers to the port, bumping up the port’s container handling capacity by 1,000 to 1,100 TEUs per ship and bringing down the overall cargo handling costs.
The port authority expects 10-metre draught ships to arrive at the jetty in the first half of 2023, said Secretary Omar Faruq, adding that the port will soon notify local and global shipping companies to operate bigger vessels on this route.
At present, transhipment ports such as Singapore, Klang and Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia, Colombo in Sri Lanka and some ports in China operate 9.5-metre draught vessels to and from Chattogram port.
With the development, Chattogram port will have to notify shipping companies for allocating ships with bigger draught on this route, said Khairul Alam Suzan, vice-president of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association.
Bigger ships will reduce the cost of importing and exporting products significantly and billions of dollars will be saved annually, he said.
Chattogram port started berthing 9.5-metre draught ships in January 2015. Earlier, even smaller ships used to come to the port, which cost more in cargo transportation.
Having the capacity to accommodate large ships is essential more expanding trade. People involved in the shipping business and export-import trade have long been demanding an increase in the berthing capacity of the Chattogram port. But the port authorities did not want to do it without a proper survey.
HR Wallingford was given the task of inspecting the Karnaphuli River and the harbour channel. They studied three issues – the current condition of the channel and jetty, the ships that are being handled at the port and the amount of space available on both sides of the channel that can be used for the expansion of the jetty.
The consultancy firm submitted a preliminary report last April. The final report was submitted recently, detailing information about the channel, the Karnaphuli River and the port.
The report also mentioned that with some dredging work at two points – outer anchorage and secret channel – of the Karnaphuli River, ships with a draught of 11 metres and a length of 225 metres can be anchored at the port.
Commander Arifur Rahman, chief hydrographer of Chittagong Port Authority, said, in view of the report, the trial run of bigger ships will start very soon. Later, foreign shipping companies will be given circulars to send large vessels.
All the 18 jetties of the port will not have the capacity to handle bigger ships. The Newmooring Container Terminal (NCT) and Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT) will be able to accommodate 10-metre draught ships. In addition, some of the jetties of the General Cargo Berth (GCB) will be readied for anchoring such bigger ships, he added.
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