Shipping Minister inaugurates port’s docking facility

Chittagong Bureau :

Chittagong Port has inaugurated the first and only docking facility for repair work of her utility ships yesterday through a ceremony in the port city.
 The 12 acres docking facility is at the bank of river Karnaphuli, located in Agrabad Barik Building. The Shipping Minister Sahjahan Khan MP was the Chief Guest in the inauguration ceremony and local Member of the Parliament Mr. M A Latif and Shipping Secretary Monjuriul Islam were present as special guests.
 The event was chaired by the Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority Rear Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed. Others high officials of Chittagong Port & Western Marine Group were also present at the event amongst other dignitaries. The facility was established in 1978 but was never operational due to certain technical fault. After 35 years of its establishment Western Marine Services Limited, the leading engineering firm in Bangladesh has undertaken the renovation work of the complete facility through an open tender called by the port authority in 2012. In January 2013 Western Marine and the Chittagong Port signed agreement to for renovation & activation of the dockyard. After a yearlong of repair work Western Marine has handed over the facility to the port which was inaugurated yesterday.
The Chittagong Port being one of the busiest sea-port in the South East region did not have any facility for repairing the port utility ships. As such after the liberation war the port authority took initiatives to establish a Workshop with docking facility to repair its own ships. The construction of the workshop was completed in 1978 by an European firm. Heavy machineries & marine gears were installed from Yugoslavia, Russia & other European countries. But eventually the complete project got halt due to certain technical difficulties leaving the complete facility on 12.0 acres of land unutilized for years and ultimately the workshop slipway got silted.
After one year of servicing & renovation today the dockyard is operational for the first time. It consist several engineering shops with two docking facilities of 1200 tons & 500 tons capacity. The Technical Director of Western Marine, who was incharge of the complete project work on behalf of Western Marine has briefed on the specifications of the docking facility during the ceremony through a detailed presentation.
The Shipping Minister Mr. Shajahan Khan said after 35 years, through initiative of the Ministry of Shipping, Chittagong Port Authority and technical support from Western Marine has brought this workshop to life for the first time, which is a great achievement for the entire nation.
The local Member of the Parliament Mr. M. A. Latif applauded saying addition of this facility in the port will add great value to port’s activity & shall save lots of government revenue which people of Chittagong should be proud of. He has also said the facility has even created job opportunity for more than 300 people in Chittagong.
The Shipping Secretary Mr. Monjurul Islam said Chittagong Port is one of the prime entities which drive this nation through revenue earning. Chittagong Port will no longer have to rely on other sources for repair of port utility ships which shall save lots of government revenue.Port Chairman Rear Admiral Nizamuddin Ahmed mentioned earlier Chittagong Port had to rely on foreign engineering firms & domestic dock yards to repair its ships. But this Marine Workshop has added value in Port’s capacity hugely.
Chairman of Western Marine pointed out the challenges the engineering firm had to go through while working on this project. This project was a great challenge undertaken by Western Marine though many of our competitors refused to take the work for certain technical complicacies.