Mitsui E&S Japan has secured a job for the design, manufacture, supply and installation of container handling equipment, terminal operation system, and security system at Bangladesh’s maiden under-construction deep-sea port at Matarbari in Chittagong.
The country’s cabinet committee on government purchase at a meeting on 20 March, presided over by Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, approved this regard for the work costing US$73 million, according to cabinet division secretary Mahmudul Hossain Khan.
The South Asian nation began construction of the deep-sea port on 11 November last year with funding from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Initially, the construction of two jetties has been started. One is a 460 meters long container jetty and the other one is 300 meters long multipurpose jetty.
The deep-sea port will have 14 kilometres long, 350 meters wide and 18.7 meters water draft main navigation channel. Vessels carrying up to 8,200 TEU containers and bulk carriers of nearly 70,000 deadweight tonnage (DWT) will be able to take berth in its jetties.
Construction of the port will require around US$2 billion and the port is expected to cater as a transshipment hub for regional countries.
In the absence of a deep-sea port, Bangladesh’s export cargo are currently carried by feeder vessels to the regional transshipment ports in Colombo, Singapore, Port Klang, and Tanjong Pelapas from where they are shifted to mother vessels to reach final destinations mainly to the West.
Similarly, import cargoes are also carried to these transshipment ports by mother vessels from where they are carried to Bangladeshi ports by small feeder vessels. This process is significantly increasing the costs.
Once the deep-sea port is constructed, mother vessels will directly dock in Matarbari carrying imported goods and also go back to the final destinations with Bangladeshi export cargoes.
Officials predict both the transportation cost and time will almost be halved. Presently a container from Bangladesh touching the transshipment ports needs around 42 days to reach Europe, one of the two main destinations of Bangladeshi export cargo.
Once carried using the deep-sea port the transit time will lessen to around 17 to 18 days to reach cargoes from Bangladesh to Europe.
Located nearly 70 kilometres away by waterways from the Chittagong port, the deep-sea port is expected to start full-fledged operations by 2026.
Sharar Nayel
Asia Correspondent
