The New Year has brought much-needed reinforcements for Chattogram Port with the inauguration of four new projects recently. State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury inaugurated four projects on January 2, which included a new service jetty, a tugboat built by Western Marine Shipyard Ltd, a new mooring overflow container yard, and a swimming complex. As the port is the gateway to Bangladesh’s development, renovation and service extension was long-hyped demands from business people for ramping up the country’s export and import. Last year, the port handled a record-breaking number of containers. Furthermore, the volume of cargo handled and ships arriving at the port have also increased. Although 72 incidents of piracy occurred at various Asian ports last year, none of them was in Bangladeshi waters. The new service jetty has been constructed next to the upstream of the main jetty of the port. The jetty will be used by Chattogram Port’s own pilot ships, survey ships, anti-pollution ships, water carrying ships, accident prevention ships and various types of service providers. As there was no service jetty for so long, a pilot had to take a vehicle to the Gupta area and board the ship.
The jetty was constructed at Chattogram Port’s own expense at a cost of over Tk 83 crore. It can easily accommodate the highest 220meter-long ship. In addition to the jetty, a three-storey office building, a warehouse, a water reservoir, and some other structures have also been constructed. The port authorities have set up a new mooring overflow container yard at the site of the old labour colony which can hold about 12,000 containers. By the projects, we hope the port container handling capacity would be increased and the business people will get smooth service. The government should leverage the renovation by ensuring road connectivity with land-locked Nepal and Bhutan and allow their business to flourish by using the port. Digitisation of the port can bring fortune for our RMG sector by reducing export-import time and cost. We hope the port authority will use its optimum potential and contribute to the nation’s economic development.
In the course of time, the geo-economic importance of Chattogram Port has increased. If the government cannot use its full potential, it will lose its credibility in the international arena. The country will also lose a huge amount of revenue. As this port is still the gateway of country and conducts around 85 per cent of national export and import; so it deserves to get proper attention for its rejuvenation keeping adjustment with the demand of time.
