Western Marine has inaugurated the construction work of one 176 TEUs container vessel through a keel laying ceremony on the 19th of September, 2013 in the shipyard premises. The ship will be built under German class Germanischer Lloyd (GL) and owner of the ship is Neepa Paribahan Ltd. She will be able to carry 176 TEUs of containers from Chittagong Port to the newly developed Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT) in Narayanganj. This way inbound container will be transported to Dhaka by inland river route which shall reduce our traffic density in highways.
Statistics say that last year Chittagong port received 15lac TEUs of containers which is also growing by 15% per annum & it will reach an optimum level of 30lac in the coming years. 90% of these goods are transferred to various destinations within the country either by rail or road. Launching of inland container ships will shift this overload from our highways to the river route.
Shipyard MD Sakhawat Hossain said Western Marine has exported eight container ships (multi purpose) in the recent past years which are plying in the European water today. This has proven the quality of shipbuilding in Bangladesh; as such Bangladeshi ship-owners should feel encouraged to purchase ships from local industry rather importing them.
Chairman Saiful Islam said Western Marine is already building five more similar container ships which shall serve the PICT.
The ships will make a major contribution in our economy for port service enhancement & at the same time she will play a major role in reduction of traffic density in highways by transporting the mass imported goods by river. This way for the first time container ships will ply in our inland channels, which has never been experienced before.
