05 May 2014: FV Alliance -1, a 41 m meter Deep Sea Mid Water Fishing Vessel built by Western Fishers Shipyard in Chittagong has been delivered to her owner. Western Fishers Shipyard is a joint venture concern of Western Marine Shipyard Ltd & Fishers Shipyard Ltd. Western Fishers Shipyard is building a series of nine fishing vessels for local owners, and FV Alliance-1 is the first from this series to be delivered. The ship delivered is of international standard & the operator will get after sale service from the shipyard, but earlier this was not possible when similar ships were imported from other countries.
Western Fishers has received orders of building 13 fishing vessels so far. Earlier the shipyard delivered three 42m fishing vessels to Agro Food Ltd. Through successful handing over of FV Alliance-1, Western Fishers has completed the construction of their fourth fishing trawler. The shipyard expects to deliver more eight vessels by June 2014.
Unlike other imported fishing trawlers in Bangladesh theses ships are custom made to operate in the Bangladeshi fishing zone considering all the possible challenges for fishing in this sea. These trawlers are equipped with advanced machinery which makes the vessel fit for fishing in the Bay of Bengal even in monsoon period. Each vessel will be able to carry & store 250 to 300 tons of fish having hi-tech European refrigeration system from Bock & Bitzer, Germany including processing deck, slurry ice machine, chill water maker, blast freezer and store freezer will be able to maintain the required core temperature ensuring best quality of the fish. The hydraulic equipment & fishing gears used in these ships comes from Scan Machinery, Denmark, the main-engine & gen-set are from Caterpillar USA & the propulsion unit has been brought from UK.
The owner of the fishing vessel is very happy with the quality of the ship. They said it is better to build the ship from local shipyard rather importing the ship from other countries as Bangladeshi yards are building international ships. The owner can also supervise & monitor the quality of the ship while it is under construction. Further they can avail after sale service from the shipyard after the ship has been delivered
Therefore it is expected that such purpose built fishing vessels in Bangladesh will be able to contribute more in the national economy through export of better quality sea food. Western Fishers also expects build fishing vessels for export market as they are already in talks with some European owner.
