Ship with 249 cars leaves Ctg port without berthing

CHITTAGONG, Oct 10: A RO-RO vessel carrying 249 reconditioned cars has left Chittagong port's outer anchorage for Singapore port without berthing at the port jetty.
The 'unprecedented' incident leaves the vehicle importers in a major financial loss as they will have to count extra charges besides damage of the image of Chittagong seaport in the maritime world.
The ship, MV Marine Reliance, anchored at Chittagong port's outer anchorage with the Japanese cars on October 7 but left the outer anchorage on the following day, the day the vessel was scheduled to berth in the port.
The length of the Marshall Island flag vessel is 174.16 metres and its draft is 7.6 metres.
Md Shamsuddin, an official at the ship's local agent BD Shipping, said the ship could not berth in the port jetty due to its problems. The cars will be shipped to Chittagong by another vessel from Singapore port.
Member (Harbour and Marine) of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Commodore M Shahjahan has stated that the vessel was short of the speed to sail to the port jetty against the current of the Karnaphuli River.
There were other problems as well for which the master of the vessel decided not to berth at the port, he said.     
Deputy Conservator of CPA Captain Nazmul Alam told this correspondent Friday night that the vessel's length is beyond the permissible length of a vessel to enter the port.
Chittagong port's permissible length is 170 metres while MV Marine Reliance's length is 174.16 metres. Besides, the ship is very old having crossed the age of 26 years, Captan Nazmul said adding that the ship's speed was low and so the master decided not to berth in the port.
The cars will be shipped through another RO-RO vessel from Singapore at the earliest, he said.
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