CHATTOGRAM, Feb 20: Physical work on Chittagong Bay Container Terminal to expedite cargo handling activities through expansion of Chittagong Port facility and capacity building has begun.
Initially the port authority will construct a cargo-laden container delivery yard and a truck terminal of 5,000 holding capacity on an area of 400 acres of land. Once these two infrastructures are completed, the trucks, covered vans and prime movers (long vehicles carrying containers) will be delivered from the same yard.
Officials in the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) said they started land filling on Tuesday to develop the delivery yard and truck terminal on the 30-foot elevated land from the sea level so that no natural calamity can cause water surge on the installation.
It has been found that water from the Bay of Bengal submerged the shore during the monsoon but it remained far below 30- foot from the sea level. So the installations to be raised here will not go under water by probable calamities, an official said.
The Bay Terminal will be constructed on an area of nearly 2,500 acres of land from the port Access Road to the Bay high tide limit stretching about six kilometres on the north, south and middle Halishahar and the Rashmoni Ghat along the seacoast.
A naturally developed 11- kilometre long strip of sandy land is rising out of seabed. The Port's existing outer anchorage is located on the west of the strip. It is an excellent site for the highly potential Bay Container Terminal, experts opined.
A channel has been created between this strip and the seacoast having draft of seven to 10 metres at different points. The draft of the outer anchorage is 13 metres.
Currently, the port area faces the severest traffic congestion as several thousand trucks, covered vans and container carriers enter the jetties, sheds and yards every single day impeding the movement of commuters, airport-bound passengers and normal city life.
Once the port-bound vehicles are diverted from the port area to its extended facility in the under-construction Bay Terminal, the city life will get a great relief from the traffic congestion, said Chairman of the CPA Rear Admiral Zulfiqur Aziz recently.
The truck terminal will be enlarged in phases up to 10,000 holding capacity when the cargo will be delivered directly from ships' hook point of the Bay Terminal to the destinations of the cargo owners.
The cargo will be delivered to importers to the north in Dhaka and other parts via Chattogram-Dhaka highway and to the southern region across the Karnaphuli via under-construction immersed tunnel. It will reduce the pressure of port-bound traffic.
Sources in the CPA Estate department said seven excavators and 50 dump-trucks started the land filling works on the Bay Terminal site on Tuesday as the district administration has handed the required lands over to the CPA through acquisition from the private land owners.
Deputy Manager (Estate) of the CPA Md Zillur Rahman said the site is almost free of abodes or other infrastructures that will facilitate speedy works on the site.
Dredging for sand lifting from the coastal seabed measuring around 400 acres of land will start by next week with the help of four dredgers, he said adding that the lifted sand will be carried away through pipeline.
The pipeline digging works will also start soon. A unit of the Bangladesh Navy is working as contractor in the Bay Terminal project. Sources said that 10 per cent container capacity will be shifted to the new facility by the end of October this year.
According to sources, ships' operational activities are likely to start by the end of 2021 and initially it will be having 0.52.2 million TEUs of containers and by the year 2043 it will handle three million TEUs of container. The terminal will be constructed at a cost of US Dollar two billion, sources said.
pankajdastider@gmail.com