It was a special day for Chittagong port on Wednesday as no vessel was waiting for berth at outer anchorage.
The vessels' position, according to the port authority, was: Neither bulk vessels nor general import (GI) vessels were waiting for berth.
Only one gearless container vessel reached the outer anchorage and was waiting (zero day) for berth.
The port authority said 12 container vessels and four other vessels with general imports were involved in cargo handling activities at the port jetties while another vessel was waiting at the New Mooring Container Terminal-5 to sail for Pangaon. It was possible due to adding equipment, especially when six quay gantry cranes started container handling at the NCT this month and efficient works of port personnel and other stakeholders round the clock, said Md Zafar Alam, Member (Administration and Planning) of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
The port authority procured six shore-to-ship gantry cranes and other equipment recently at a cost of about Tk 3.5 billion to step up the pace of the cargo handling activities.
All the six cranes had been installed at two jetties of the NCT with three cranes each, which according to the sources concerned, enhanced unloading of containers by 30 per cent.
"It was a special day in the history of the Chittagong port that no import vessel had to wait at the port's outer anchorage for getting berth in the port. All the berths inside the port were involved in cargo handling on the container and bulk cargo vessels," Mr Alam said.
Senior port officials said cargo handling faced a setback at the prime seaport of the country due to lack of adequate equipment.
As the port experiences a 12-14 per cent growth in import and export every year, they said, some cargo handling equipment had been installed this year (2018). Over the last few years, the port authority increased its cargo handling capacity considerably, but that was not sufficient to cope with the growing demand for import and export, they added.
Estuary of the Karnaphuli River is being dredged after a pause for years and bigger ships with more cargoes can now anchor in the port.
However, exporters, importers, private cargo handling operators, trade bodies and port experts have been warning that cargo handling in the port would reach such a level within next two years that extra pressure is unlikely to be tackled by the port's existing facilities.
They have also been calling for speedy implementation of the Bay Container Terminal construction and other terminal projects undertaken by CPA alongside expansion of yard facilities and addition of handling equipment including cranes, and road and rail transportation facilities for quick delivery of factory raw materials from the port and reaching export products to ships.
Four gantry cranes were installed at Chittagong Container Terminal back in 2005, but no other gantry crane were added to the cargo handling equipment. Other jetties of the port were carrying out activities manually in the gearless ships.
The Chittagong Port Authority constructed the NCT in 2008, but they could not enjoy its facility properly as five newly constructed jetties had no shore-to-ship gantry cranes.
If 10 gantry cranes are installed at the NCT, it will enhance the port's container handling by another 1.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) a year, port's stakeholders said.
Chairman of CPA Rear Admiral Zulfiqur Aziz said the global maritime world got a new message on Wednesday that Chittagong port had no ship congestion and no ship calling in the port had to sit idle.
