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Bay Container Terminal: Taking the port capacity to next stage

Our Correspondent | November 30, 2017 00:00:00


While the Chittagong region has seen a substantial increase in the number of economic establishments, its relative standing within the country as a whole has declined. Of the total economic units in the country, Chittagong Division's share declined from 21 per cent in 1986 to 17 per cent in 2013. Chittagong is known as the commercial capital of the country. But it is so by name only. The range and scope of a truly commercial capital has not been explored exhaustively enough to give the country's second largest city the shape it deserves. Development of the port city into a commercial city is necessary in the interest of the country, not of the region concerned.

With the Bay of Bengal allowing ships and cargoes to find it as a convenient port of call, the country's premier seaport has the advantage of handling an increasing volume of export and import cargoes. Neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, India and China are interested to use the service of the port, if its handling capacity for container goods can be raised accordingly. The port city stands at a strategic location for commerce and business before neighbouring Myanmar wrests the initiative to divert the focus. Because the opening up of this port city to the sea holds out bright prospects for its becoming one major regional commercial hub.

Businesses of the country are concerned at the slow pace of infrastructural development of the prime seaport stating that the port will not be able to handle the import and export cargoes beyond 2018, if more berthing facilities and equipment facilities are not enhanced adequately. In this regard they have put emphasis on the proposed Bay Terminal at the Patenga coast and demanded that the terminal be constructed on an urgent basis, because it will enhance the draft of vessels, remove the existing limitations of low tide and high tide and as many as 35 ships will be able to anchor at the port at a time.

The proposed Bay Container Terminal (BCT) is considered as the future port of Chittagong. The terminal will meet partially the crying need for a deep sea port in Cox's Bazar that exists in the long term plan of the government. Chittagong Port is committed to contributing greatly to the national economy by improving its efficiency and productivity as per the Strategic Master Plan 2013-43. Under the SMP, the port authority has started working on implementation of the Bay Terminal that has tremendous prospects for development regarding vessels' turnaround time, draft of vessels calling at the port, dead weight tonnage container carrying capacity, berthing facilities, coal and clinker handling, unloading of fuel and finally connectivity.

The CPA has planned to set up the new terminal on the Halishahar-Patenga coast line with all modern facilities to mobilise port activities and reduce transportation cost. To be built on 907 acres of land the Bay Terminal would allow big ships, which now cannot anchor at the port, to berth for carrying out shipping activities. The CPA will finance, control and supervise the BCT to be built on the coast line near the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ).

German Consulting firm HPC (Hamburg Port Consulting) completed the feasibility study of the Bay Container Terminal with the technical support of the Asian Development Bank for the Chittagong Port Authority under the 30-year SMP. As per projection of the SMP, the port will have to handle over 2.7 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers by 2019 when the port's container handling capacity will remain 2.28 million TEUs with a handling deficit, which will rise to 1.1 million TEUs by 2022, which necessitates urgent undertaking of the project.

CPA Member (admin and planning) Zafar Alam said the Bay Container Terminal site is excellent and has a large area without structures or occupants and the land is available with the local district administration at almost no cost. It offers potential for future port expansion and is close to the existing road and rail links to and from Dhaka. The SMP of the CPA concluded that if the Bay Terminal was the only option, its justification in terms of traffic volume, economic benefits to Bangladesh and financial returns to the CPA would be sound.

The vessels with maximum 1,800 TEUs of containers can now berth in the Chittagong Port. But as per report of the Asian Development Bank the vessels with four times more containers, that is 5,000 containers, will be able to berth in the Bay Container Terminal. The distance between the port and its outer anchorage is about 15 kilometres and the width of the Karnaphuli channel is 250 metre.s The channel is in a very zigzag way and due to that limitation the vessels entering the port face different problems.

On the other hand, the port is only one kilometre away from the Bay Terminal site. The width of the channel in the Bay Terminal area is 800 to 1, 200 metres. As a result, movement of all kinds of vessels and cargo handling in the vessels is risk-free.

At present, no mother vessel enters into the port mainly due to low draft ranging from 8 to 9.5 metres in the Karnaphuli channel. A mother vessel of a higher draft that anchors now in the deep sea anchorage area will be able to anchor in the Halishahar-Anandabazar-Kattali area earmarked for the BCT. Mother vessels which carry around 10,000 containers release those meant for Bangladesh at the Singapore Port, Port Kelang of Malaysia or in Colombo Port. Later, the feeder vessels bring the cargoes to Chittagong Port. The proposed site for the BCT is on the coast to the west of the existing port in north Halishahar region of Chittagong, connected by the Port Link Road to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west. The width of the site from the Port Link Road to the sea during high tide is approximately 600 metres and several kilometres north from the CEPZ. The land has formed with sediments over the last few decades. Near the sea there is limited vegetation but closer to the sea the land is very low. An embankment has been constructed to protect the land from tidal surges and cyclones. The site has excellent connections to the main port areas and also to the Chittagong-Dhaka highway with the proposed tunnel under the Karnaphuli River at Patenga.

The Standing Committee for Shipping Ministry has emphasised construction of the BCT at the earliest as the CPA's cargo handling is growing by 14-15 per cent annually. With the existing infrastructure facilities the Chittagong Port will not be able to handle cargoes beyond 2018, the committee said. So it was urgently needed that the port authority starts construction of the Bay Terminal that could help vessels with 10 to 12 metres of draft anchor here.

The BCT project has already acquired NOC (no objection certificates) from 15 agencies concerned including the Environment Department, Chittagong Development Authority, Chittagong City Corporation, Fire Services, Chittagong WASA, Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Co and the police department.

pankajdastider@gmail.com


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