Three more quay gantry cranes reached at the Chattogram port on Friday morning.
A Chinese vessel, MV Xing Jin Cheng Hai Yaag, carrying the gantry cranes, arrived at a jetty of the New Mooring Container Terminal at 9:00 am.
Member (Admin and Planning) of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Md Zafar Alam told the FE the vessel arrived with three sophisticated quay gantry cranes, generally called shore-to-ship gantry cranes.
The port had no shore-to-ship gantry crane, considered very vital equipment for container handling.
"This is a bow bridge ship and the quay gantry cranes (QGCs) are stowed horizontally on its deck. These will be unloaded at the NCT and be added to three other QGCs which arrived on August 15 and are now in operation there," he said.
The NCT built in 2007 got the required quay gantry cranes after 11 years.
All the six QGCs will be installed at berth nos. 3, 4 and 5 of the container terminal to enhance its container handling capacity, replacing the slow-moving old crane handling system.
Port sources said as many as 61 pieces of equipment including QGCs were scheduled to be procured soon at a cost of Tk 12.29 billion (1,229 crore) for expediting container handling.
The CPA signed a contract with the Shanghai Zenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd of China for procuring the six QGCs in October 2017 at a cost of Tk 3.45 billion from the CPA's own fund.
Sources said only the geared vessels could have berthed at the NCT as the terminal had no gantry crane of its own.
Now the port can handle any vessel - geared or gearless - at the terminal. That will help expedite the container handling activities at the NCT.
Saif Powertec, a private sector berth operator, is currently handling containers at the two major container terminals - NCT and CCT (Chittagong Container Terminal).
The CPA will procure four more gantry cranes from China at a cost of Tk 2.386 billion. The cranes are expected to reach the port by May.
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