The Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has postponed a planned trial docking of a bulk carrier at the newly-built Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) on Thursday citing unfinished construction works.
A new date for the trial operation and the inauguration ceremony of the terminal will be announced later, authorities said on Wednesday.
Chittagong Port Authority Secretary Md Omar Farooq told TBS that on July 21, "Preparations were made to dock a bulk carrier ship at PCT as a trial. But some of the works inside the terminal are yet to be completed," CPA Secretary Md Omar Faruk told The Business Standard.
However, a ship named Khanak, engaged in the excavation of Chattogram port will moor at the terminal today. But no ceremony will be held to mark the occasion.
According to sources, CPA is planning to conduct the trial docking of the bulk carrier in the third week of August.
Engineer Mizanur Rahman Sarkar, project director of PCT, said 95% of the construction work and purchase work of the project has been completed.
The Patenga Container Terminal, built on a 32-acre site at a cost of Tk1,229 crore, will be able to handle about 4.5 lakh twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers a year.
The terminal, with three container jetties and an oil unloading (dolphin) jetty, will be able to load and unload containers from four cargo vessels simultaneously.
Five foreign companies have come forward with proposals for investing in and managing the terminal. The companies are AP Moller – Maersk of Denmark, Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) of Saudi Arabia, Dubai Port World (DP World) of UAE, Adani Port and Special Economic Zone Ltd of India and PSA International Singapore.
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