Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) is going to set up a new terminal on Patenga coastline with all modern port facilities to mobilize port activities and reduce transportation cost.
The proposed ‘Bay Terminal’ to be built on an area of 900 acres would allow big ships, which now cannot anchor at the Chittagong Port, to berth for carrying out shipment activities, CPA sources said yesterday.
CPA will finance, control and supervise the Bay Terminal to be built on the coastline behind the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), reports BSS.
The Shipping Ministry has already approved the project while Chittagong District Administration approved acquiring of 900 acres of Khas land for this purpose, the sources added.
According to the port sources, the country’s premier sea port, Chittagong Port, handles over 16 lakhs TEUs (Twenty Equivalent Units) of containers side by side with handling 1.5 crores of cement clinkers and huge quantity of coal and open cargoes annually.
CPA has been improving its facilities and has embarked upon a number of development projects to cope with the increasing productivity of port activities, CPA sources said.
Different cement industries of the country import nearly 1.5 crores of cement clinkers while a huge quantity of coals were also imported for local industries and brick-kilns through the port.
But big vessels carrying different kinds of cargoes including the cement clinkers, coals and food grains cannot berth at the port jetties as CPA allows ships with 190 metres length and 9.5 metres draft to berth at the jetties for unloading their cargoes.
Under such a condition, ships with more length and draft have to anchor at the outer anchorage of the port to unload their goods through lighter vessels which results in a high transportation cost.
Keeping this in view, the CPA is going to set up the ‘Bay Terminal’ to allow bigger ships to directly berth adjacent to estuary of the port.
An official of CPA said the bigger ships with more length and draft will be able to berth at the jetties of the terminal for handling goods. “The new terminal would immensely reduce transportation cost and bring a dynamism in port activities”, he said adding that Chittagong Outer Ring Road would also be used for transporting the goods from the terminal.