CHATTOGRAM, July 06: A new shipping service between Kolkata and Chattogram has completed its maiden voyage when the ship reached the port city from the capital of India's West Bengal state on Monday.
Singapore flag carrier ship 'MV Asiatic Moon', which set sail from Kolkata's Shyama Proshad Mukharje Port, arrived at Chittagong Port in the afternoon.
Port sources said, the mother vessel, loaded with cargoes for readymade garment (RMG) industry and steel goods, arrived at Chittagong Sea Port at 2.30pm.
They said the new shipping service will be run in association with Bengal Tiger Shipping Lines. The new service made its debut with arrival of MV Asiatic Moon in the port city, they added.
Officials said the ship carried containers equivalent to 300 TEUs.
According to the Radio Control Department of Chittagong Port, under the new shipping service, the vessel completed the voyage without any disruption. Earlier, a small barge had arrived at Chittagong Port from Shyama Proshad Mukharje Port without any problem. But MV Asiatic Moon is the first mother vessel which completed the voyage with a large number of containers.
According to the Bengal Tiger Shipping Lines, from now on, MV Asiatic Moon will run regularly between Chittagong Port and Shyama Proshad Mukharje Port. It said though the ship carried 300 TEUs containers today, the vessel has the capacity to carry a total of 1,155 TEUs containers.
Officials of the shipping lines expressed the hope that the new service will help increase the trade between India and Bangladesh. They also hoped that it will lessen pressure of containers and goods at Benapole and Petrapole land ports. Goods worth around Tk 300 billion (Tk 30,000 crore) were traded between that two ports last year, they said. "The new shipping service will help carry the cargoes by ships with low cost," they added.
The local agent of the Bengal Tiger Shipping Line is Trident Shipping Line Limited. Manager of Trident Shipping Line Limited Kaji Shahid Mahmud said, the MV Asiatic Moon will provide service three times in one month. The ship will carry the imported goods from India and also carry export items from Bangladesh regularly.
He said, the 148.53-meter-long Asiatic Moon was made in 2006 with 1155 TEUs container carrying capacity.
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