State Minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury is expected to inaugurate the jetty, located at the Jetty-1 area on the edge of the River Karnaphuli.
The state minister will hand over the port’s newly-acquired tugboat and inaugurate an overflow yard, swimming complex and a tennis court at the event, where Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Ahmed, secretary of the shipping ministry will attend as the special guest.
“The new service jetty will help speed up operation of the vessels owned by the port,” Omor Faruk, secretary at the Chittagong Port Authority, told The Business Standard.
“Commercial vessels will also be allowed to unload goods at the jetty,” he added.
According to sources at the port, the Chittagong port owns some 35 vessels including rescue ships, tugboats, survey vessels, fire-fighting vessels and water-carrying vessels.
These vessels will be operated from the 722 feet jetty, built at an expense of Tk83 crore.
For the last 13 years, the country’s premier port did not have any service jetty from which it could provide the necessary support to inbound and outbound ships, though it has a total of 18 jetties for loading and unloading goods.
Officials said the port had a service jetty in the Jetty-17 area, which expired in 2008. Since then, the port-owned vessels have been anchored at various spots on the Karnaphuli River shore.
The new service jetty would bring momentum in operating vessels of the port and keep them protected, hopes Mohammad Omar Faruq, the port secretary.
The service jetty has a capacity of accommodating two ships with a 5-metre draft and 100-metre length at a time.
Meanwhile, the port authorities constructed a three-story office on 2,650 square feet of land, a steel-structure warehouse on 3,000 square feet, and an underground water reservoir, retaining walls, riverbank and shore protection structures, drainage system, electric substation, and a signal tower centring the jetty.
Source : TBS News
