Biggest ship to ever dock at Matarbari deep-sea port

CHATTOGRAM, Apr 26: A Panama flag carrier ship, Owusu Maru, carrying 63,000 MT of coal from Indonesia has berthed at the Matarbari jetty of the deep-sea port.

The Owusu Maru, a 229-metre long and 12.5-metre draft ship, arrived on Tuesday afternoon. It is the biggest ship to ever dock at the port of Bangladesh. The Matarbari jetty of deep-sea port under Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has handled a total of 113 ships so far.

Member (Harbour and Marine) of CPA Comodore Fazlur Rahman, Deputy Conservator Captain Faridul Alam, Captain Jahir and Pilot Captain Kamrul and Co-pilot Captain Shams berthed the ship at the jetty.

Secretary of CPA Omar Faruk said, "The Matarbari jetty of the deep-sea port under CPA has handled 113 ships so far. With the berthing of Owusu Maru, the deep-sea port under CPA has handled the biggest ship ever."

He also said, "We have successfully handled all 113 ships so far, including the 229-metre long and 12.5-metre draft ship Owusu Maru."

Chairman of CPA Rear Admiral M Shahjahan said, "Deep-sea port of CPA will serve as the regional business hub after completion of its construction. We can handle the mother vessels at the deep-sea port terminals at Matarbari. The large mother vessels will be able to berth at the deep seaport terminals in the future. As a result, it will be the most important regional hub of export and import for the neighbouring countries."

According to several sources, the deep-sea port work at Matarbari in Cox's Bazar is continuing in full swing now. The seaport was originally built for Matarbari coal-fired power plant. Later, the government decided to turn it into a deep-sea port. Work for the project at a cost of Tk 177.75 billion began on November 16 in 2020. The new deep-sea port will be the first deep-sea port in Bangladesh. The port is expected to reduce pressure at the Chittagong port.

At the first stage, a 300-metre long multipurpose terminal and a 460-metre long container terminal are planned to be constructed by 2026. The navigation channel will be 350-metre long with a maximum permissible draught of 16-metre. Ships with the capacity of 8,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers will be able to berth.

The container terminal will be built on 18 hectares, and have an annual capacity of 0.6 to 1.1 million TEUs. Later, the container terminal will be expanded up to 70 hectares with 1,850-metre berth. It will have a 2.8 million TEUs capacity.

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