Western Marine building vessel for Pangaon Container Terminal

CHITTAGONG, Jan 25: Construction of an inland container vessel that will run between the Chittagong Port and the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT) in Narayanganj started at the Western Marine Shipyard at Patiya in Chittagong Saturday.
The ship being built for the local company Aryan Traders Ltd. will have the capacity to carry 176 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers. When commissioned, it will help ease traffic on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
The Chittagong Port handled 1.5 million TEUs of containers in 2013. The volume might reach 3.0 million by the end of the current calendar year. Ninety per cent of these goods are transported to different destinations within the country either by road or by train.
Western Marine Shipyard managing director Engineer Sakhawat Hossain said the shipyard had exported eight multi-purpose container ships in the last few years. It would give the local ship owners confidence to purchase ships from the local industry rather than importing them, he added.
 "We have signed contracts on a total of seven such ships and are expecting to sign contracts on five more," he said.
Western Marine Shipyard chairman Saiful Islam said the company was also building five more container ships for the same route.