
Eight years after Chittagong Port, which happens to be the principal sea port of Bangladesh and handles bulk of imports and exports including apparel shipments, allowed 9.5-metre-draught and 190-metre-long ships to anchor at its jetty, has now finally started accommodating large container vessels with 10 metres draught and 200 metres length.
This is as per media reports, which maintained Cargo ship Common Atlas, which had been docked at the port’s outer anchorage after bringing in Meghna Group’s 60,500 tonnes raw sugar import from Brazil on 10 January, became the first large vessel to berth at Jetty 1 of the Chittagong Container Terminal on Sunday (15 January).
Reports have further added the enhanced vessel handling capacity of Chittagong Port has paved the way for direct container ship services with various countries even if containers of imported goods can now be unloaded from large vessels at the port jetty instead of the outer anchorage, thereby significantly reducing goods unloading and transportation costs as well as turnaround time.