River freight limit irks shippers

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

2 Sep 2010

Private shipping operators are blaming the shipping ministry for a move to issue licences for the first container river route -- Chittagong Port and Pangaon inland container terminal at Keraniganj -- only to small ships. They say the ministry's exclusion of carriers of more than 100 containers makes the route uneconomic.
The shipping ministry last month sought applications from private shipping lines wishing licences; Monday was the last day.
"This specific size of ship […] will not be commercially viable for the route," said Neo G Mendes, chairman of Enem-Omni Companies.
He said if the government withdraws the size limit, ships could use the route that are able to carry about 196 TEUs, a measure equal to a common 20-foot container.
Md Abdul Kuddus, joint secretary in the shipping ministry, said the government issued a gazette notice on the shipping limit on a recommendation from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) naval engineers.
This size of the ship is designed to navigate narrow river routes.
"If any company has any ships with a new technology and with proven efficiency, the government will accommodate those and the gazette notifications will be changed further," Kuddus added.
"The government never limited size of a ship to get licence,” said Mendes. “If a company can introduce ships with modern technology and can operate efficiently, why should the government limit it?" he asked.
A German company -- Komrowski Maritim -- has a technology that can turn a ship without moving forward and downward, Mendes said, adding that this ship is large in size but efficient for the route.
Chief Naval Architect of BUET Khabirul Haque Chowdhury said technology is evolving and that different technologies could be suitable at the same time.
Meanwhile, construction work of the container river route is nearly complete, on track for a scheduled opening by January 2011.
The river route will reduce the transhipment cost and hassle as trains have limited capacity and severe congestion chokes the Dhaka-Chittagong routes.
Chittagong Port annually handles 10 lakh TEUS, 90 percent of which are transported by road; only 10 percent reach Dhaka by railway.
“If the river route is open, transportation of cargo in container would increase by many times,” said freight forwarder Abdulah Amin Khan. “Cost would go down and congestion on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway would be reduced significantly.”
Chittagong Port Authority and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) broke ground on the container port at Pangaon in early 2001; landfill and bank protection was completed in 2006.
The main construction started in 2008 on 64 acres of BIWTA land along the Buriganga at Pangaon. Jetties and sheds cover 35 acres of land and roads another 29 acres.
The Pangaon inland container terminal will have a storage capacity of up to 3,500 TEUs containers and handle up to 1.16 lakh TEUS containers annually.

Source: The Daily Star