Cabinet committee on public purchase yesterday approved shipping ministry’s proposal to procure a crude oil carrying lighterage vessel from Turkey.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed presided over the meeting as Finance Minister AMA Muhith went to Nepal to attend SARRC conference.
Bangladesh Shipping Corporation will procure a 12 year-old 15,000-25,000 DWT capacity lighterage vessel from Turkey’s Camlica Shipping, said Additional Secretary Mustafiur Rahman told journalists after the meeting.
Camlica’s local agent M/S Afroz Shipping will arrange the procurement, he added.
According to the proposal, the present two vessels are 27-year old and will not be allowed in the international maritime area after the end of 2015.
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) provision, the single hull based two oil lighterage vessels - MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Shourabh - will no longer be allowed to operate in international maritime area from the end of this year.
IMO said the vessels are 27-year old and need to be replaced. It said only the double hull based vessel would be allowed in the international maritime area from 2016.
According to the procurement proposal, the Camlica Shipping will supply a 12 year-old crude oil carrying lighterage vessel in a few months as per condition tagged with tender.
A total of five local and foreign companies participated in the tender.
Turkey’s Camlica Shipping’s local agent M/S Afroz Shipping and M/S Overseas Marketing Corporation passed the technical evaluation of tender process.
Camlica Shipping scored the highest point and agreed to supply MT PULI lighterage vessel with a capacity of 15,857 MT DWT. The vessel will be procured at a cost of Tk156.11 crore.