CHATTOGRAM, Apr 4: Chattogram Port has got its maiden rail-mounted gantry crane, which will double the port's existing capacity of handling the Dhaka ICD-bound containers.
Sources at the port said, the rail-mounted gantry (RMG) vrane, imported from China, was unloaded on Monday and will be installed at the country's main seaport next week.
The sources said the crane will be installed at the rail-point jetty of Chattogram Container Terminal (CCT) by the second week of April.
They said this will be the first RMG crane at the Chattogram Port. The port authority has procured the crane from a Chinese company at a cost of Tk 220 million (Tk 22 crore).
The task of lifting containers and mounting the same on freight trains has been carried out at the port with the help of three high capacity straddle carriers so far. These straddle carriers can handle 10 containers of 20-foot equivalent unit (TEUs) jointly per hour.
Once goes into operation the RMG crane will handle 20 TEUs of1 containers per hour.
After installation of the RMG crane the straddle carriers will be free and can be installed at the port yards for other operational activities which will also expedite the overall container handling capacity of the port.
A good number of containers, containing imported goods, are transported through the rail wagons from Chattogram Port to the Inland Container Depot (ICD) of Kamalapur in Dhaka every day. After unloading in Dhaka, the empty containers and those filled with export items are mounted on cargo trains at the Kamalapur ICD for transporting them to Chattogram Port.
A senior official said the Chattogram Port Authority has planned to equip the port jetties with greater number of containerised and bulk cargo handling equipment to enhance its handling capacity.
Under the project, six quay gantry cranes will be set up at the New Mooring Container Terminal in October this year in the first phase followed by four other quay gantry cranes for the NCT in the second phase.
Meanwhile, two gantry cranes, sitting idle after damaged by a foreign vessel at the Chattogram Container Terminal berth recently, will be repaired next month.
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