Matarbari deep-sea port handled 100 ships so far

CHATTOGRAM, Aug 24: The deep seaport being constructed by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) in Matarbari of Cox's Bazar has handled 100 ships so far.
MV Hosei Fortune, a Panama flag carrier ship, berthed at the jetty on Wednesday - this is the 100th ship.
Earlier, on December 29, 2020 last, Venus Trumph, another Panama flag carrier ship, berthed at the deep seaport for the first time.
CPA Secretary Omar Faruk said, "The Matarbari jetty has handled the 100th ship today (Wednesday). With this, the deep seaport has touched the milestone of handling 100 ships so far."
"A total of 117,091 MT cargoes have so far been handled at the Matarbari jetty so far. The government earned around Tk 20,806,230 in revenues by handling the ships," he added.
CPA Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan said, "The deep seaport will be the regional business hub after completion of its construction. Then we will be able to handle mother vessels at the Matarbari deep seaport terminals."
"If mother vessels can berth here, the deep seaport will be the most important regional hub for export-import of the neighbouring countries," said Mr Shahjahan.
"After completion of the deep seaport, export-import trade and maritime connectivity of Bangladesh will also remarkably increase," said the CPA chairman, adding that the deep seaport would also increase the Chittagong port's capacity in handling cargoes and containers.
The construction work of the deep seaport at Matarbari in Cox's Bazar is going on in full swing now. As a result, the project is likely to be finished within 2025 next.
The seaport was originally to be built for Matarbari coal-fired power plant but the government later decided to turn it into a deep seaport.
Work of the project at a cost of Tk177.75 billion (Tk17,775 crore) began on November 16, 2020. The new deep seaport will be the first of its kind in Bangladesh.
The port is planned to reduce pressure on the Chittagong port and in the first phase, one 300-metre-long multipurpose terminal and one 460-metre-long container terminal are planned to be constructed by 2026.
The navigation channel will be 350 metres long with a maximum permissible draught of 16 metres. Ships with the capacity of 8,000 TEUS containers will be able to berth.
The container terminal will be built on 18 hectares, and have an annual capacity of 600,000 to 1.1 million TEUs.
Later, the container terminal will be extended up to 70 hectares, with 1,850 metres berth and have a 2.8 million TEUs capacity.

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