The new year has brought much-needed reinforcements for Chittagong port, with the inauguration of four new projects recently.
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury inaugurated four projects on January 2, which include a new service jetty, a tugboat built by Western Marine Shipyard Ltd, a new mooring overflow container yard, and a swimming complex.
The state minister said that the Chittagong port was the gateway to Bangladesh’s development that has also continued handling of goods and containers during the Covid-19 pandemic on the instructions of the Prime Minister.
Chittagong port is an exception where there is congestion in the ports of different countries of the world. Last year, the port handled a record-breaking number of containers. Furthermore, the volume of cargo handled and ships arriving at the port have also increased, he also said.
Port Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, Member Md Zafar Alam, Secretary Md Omar Faruq and other senior officials of the Ministry of Shipping were also present at the occasion.
Chittagong Port Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan said although 72 incidents of piracy occurred at various Asian ports last year, none of them was in Bangladeshi waters.
The new service jetty has been constructed next to the upstream of the main jetty of the port.
The jetty will be used by Chittagong Port’s own pilot ships, survey ships, anti-pollution ships, water carrying ships, accident prevention ships and various types of service providers.
As there was no service jetty for so long, a pilot had to take a vehicle to the Gupta area and board the ship.
Sometimes pilots had to get on the ship and go to the outer anchorage.
The jetty was constructed at Chittagong Port’s own expense at a cost of over Tk83 crore.
The jetty can easily accommodate 220 meter-long ships. If it is a small ship, several can be floated together.
Source : Dhaka Tribune
