Ship carrying 65,020 MT coal dock at Matarbari deep sea port

A Cyprus flag-carrier ship MV LMZ Atlas loaded with 65,020 metric tonnes (MT) of coal berthed at the Matarbari jetty of the deep sea port on Tuesday.

The 229-metre-long and 12.5-metre-draft ship came from Indonesia. This is the 116th ship berthed at the seaport.

Earlier, MV Navios Amber berthed at Matarbari on June 23. Besides, two ships -- MV GCL Paradip carrying 64,770 MT coal and MV Owusu Maru -- berthed at the Matarbari Deep Sea Port on April 26.

Secretary of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Omar Faruk said, "The Matarbari jetty of Deep Sea Port of CPA has handled 116 ships so far. The ships loaded with project cargoes and coal used to berth at the deep sea port of CPA. We have successfully handled all ships."

He also said, "Deep sea port of CPA will be the regional business hub after completion of its construction. We can handle the mother vessels at the deep seaport terminals at Matarbari. More large vessels will be berthed here. As a result, it will be an important regional hub of export and import for the neighbouring countries."

Sources said the construction work of the dream project, Deep Sea Port at Matarbari in Cox's Bazar, are continuing in full swing now. The deep sea port was originally built for Matarbari coal-fired power plant then the government decided to turn it into a deep sea port.

The work for the project at a cost of Tk 177.75 billion began on November 16 in 2020. It will be the first deep sea port in Bangladesh.

At the first stage, a 300 metres long multipurpose terminal and a 460 metres long container terminal are planned to be constructed by 2026. The navigation channel will be 350 metres long with a maximum permissible draught of 16 meters. Ships with the capacity of 8,000 TEU containers will be able to berth at the port.

Initially, the container terminal will be built on an area of 18 hectares and have an annual capacity of 0.6 million to 1.1 million TEUs. Later, the container terminal will be expanded up to 70 hectares with a capacity of 2.8 million TEUs.

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