C T Online Desk: Chairman of the Chattogram Port Authority Rear Admiral M Shahjahan said that the capacity of the port will increase 3-4 times more if the construction of Bay Terminal and Matarbari Deepsea Port Development Project is completed. He made the remarks at the views exchange meeting with the media persons yesterday afternoon on the occasion of the 135th founding anniversary of the port at Munshi Fazlur Rahman Auditorium in the port city . He told that the Cox’s Bazar district administration handed over 263.28 acres of land under the Matarbari Port Development Project to the port authorities on March 30 last . Tenders will be called for the construction of the port. The Matarbari terminal will be able to accommodate ships with a draft of more than 16 meters. In the last week of October 2021, the district administration handed over the documents of 8 acres of privately owned land under the Bay Terminal project to the port. The Ministry of Land has been requested through the Ministry of Shipping to allocate another 803 acres of land in favor of the port at a symbolic price. By 2025, the port authorities are working to build 1,500 meters long multipurpose terminal, 1,225 meters long and 2 container terminals 800 meters long each
. He said the construction work of Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) for handling 4.5 lakh TEU’s containers a year is 90 per cent complete. The project is being implemented at a cost of Tk 1,229.56 crore. The 800-meter jetty will be able to accommodate three container vessels of 190 meters long and 9 meters draft and an oil tanker at the 220-meter long Dolphin jetty. I hope that the activities of PCT will start next July. The launch of direct shipping service from Chittagong port to Europe has created new milestones by sea.
MV Tsonga Cheetaha left the port on February 8 with 952 containers to Italy . There are also direct shipping routes from Chittagong to USA. The container storing capacity has been increased to 55,000 by constructing 560,000 square meters yard in a decade to increase the capacity of the port. Port limit has been increased from 8 nautical miles to 50 nautical miles. To increase the port logistics capacity, 2 tugboats named Kandari 8 and 12, 2 mooring launches, 2 site scan sonar, 2 echo sounders, 1 sea-going harbor tugboat have been procured. Over the last decade, 390 different types of cargo and container handling equipments including ship to shore key gantry crane, mobile harbor crane, rubber tiered gantry crane have been collected. The port chairman said various concessions are being given to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in private ICDs
. A multi-storey car shed is being constructed near Jetty Gate No. 1 of the port. Initiatives have been taken to build state-of-the-art chemical sheds to facilitate safe import and export of hazardous, radioactive and chemical products. In Chittagong Port in 2021, container handling has been 32 lakh 14 thousand TEUs, growth of 13.19 percent. General cargo lifted 116 million tons, an increase of about 13 percent. Ship handling has been 4,209, growth 13 percent. This achievement has exceeded the 30-year launch of the port. Port member (Harbor and Marine) Commodore was present at the time. Mostafizur Rahman, Member (Finance) Kamrul Amin, Member (Engineering) Capt. Mahbubur Ragman, Heads of all Departments and CBA Leaders were present, a port sources said.
