Engineer Abdur Rashid, Founder of Karnaphuli Ship Builders Limited (KSBL) informed they are investing Tk600 crore to construct six jetties. I believe we will be able to handle our export-import trade for the next 20 years utilising the existing ports and these six jetties, he said. The government is spending thousands of crore taka on Payra and Mongla ports, but unfortunately, these ports cannot berth vessels with a draught of 8-9 metres. The Karnaphuli River is a blessing for us as here we are able to berth vessels with a draft of up to 11 metres in private jetties.
The cost of doing business will decrease as more and more large ships will berth here, decreasing turnaround time as well.
We have been operating two private jetties for one year, handling over 12,00,000 tonnes of cargo so far.
Securing a low-interest loan of over Tk800 crore from the World Bank, we are building a total of six private jetties with a capacity of berthing vessels of 11-metre draught, which will increase the container handling capacity of the Chattogram port.
We hope to build the remaining four jetties within two years. It will open more possibilities of direct shipping with our Europe, the USA and Asia routes. Recently, representatives from different countries including England visited our jetties to open direct routes.
KSBL is also building a dry dock on the Karnaphuli river. Around 4,000 ships come into Chattogram port every year but currently, Bangladesh can only repair vessels of 20,000 DWT (or 175 meters in length) at Chattogram Dry Dock, owned by the Bangladesh Navy. Building this new dry dock on Karnaphuli River will be a landmark achievement as Bangladesh will be able to repair vessels of 100,000 DWT or 253 meters in length. It will help to gain the trust of foreign shipping operators to operate large ships in Bangladesh. This dockyard and jetties will create more than 3,000 jobs.
