Western Marine Shipyard has signed a new agreement for newbuilding of one more container ship. This ship will be constructed for Aryan Traders Ltd. The deal was signed by the Technical Director of Western Marine Shipyard Mr. Arifur Rahman Khan and the Managing Director of Aryan Traders Mr. Hasan Saife Jalil on behalf of their respective organizations. The ships will be having a carrying capacity of 176 TEUs of container. She will carry containers from Chittagong Port to Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (PICT). So far Western Marine has secured orders for building 6 container ships & 3 are under construction in the shipyard.
This ship will be built at a cost of BDT22crore. She will be built under Germanischer Lloyd class, especially designed for carrying containers in inland route of Bangladesh & coastal region. The drawing & design of the container vessels has been approved by Department of Shipping as it complies the rule of navigation in Chittagong-Pangaon route. To be mentioned ships which will ply in the route of Chittagong Port to Pangaon has limitation of draft & length, this limitation relates to the ship’s carrying capacity & speed. Western Marine designed container ships are perfectly fit for the said route considering all the possible obstructions. The container ships being built at Western Marine are 82meter in length & they will be able to carry 176TEUs of containers at a draft of 3.5m. They will have a maximum speed of 10knots.
Operation of container vessels in Chittagong to Dhaka will reduce traffic density in the Dhaka – Chittagong highway. Previously inbound containers in Chittagong Port used to be transported to other parts of the country either by road or railway. Introduction of these ships will reduce 15% of traffic congestion in our highways from growing trade every year. Further freight cost will drop as container carrying cost is cheaper by river route than road or by rail.