CDDL takes moves for building multipurpose vessels

Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd (CDDL), the lone state-run dockyard that repairs national and foreign flag vessels, for the first time plans to build multipurpose container vessels for national use. An ECNEC meeting held here recently approved building four vessels each of 108 TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit) container carrying capacity for Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) and out of the four, two vessels would be built by the CDDL.
To carry forward the ECNEC decision, the BIWTC has sent a letter of intent to the CDDL to build two vessels. The CDDL accepted the proposal signaling its desire and capability for the same.
CDDL Managing Director Engr. Enamul Baqui told BSS that the CDDL has initiated the work on building inland and seagoing vessels by making big sections and blocks in it's covered workshops and open fabrication yards.
Shipbuilding programme for two BIWTC vessels will be conducted by the existing technical facilities and manpower at the CDDL workshops, dock and out-fitting ting jetties.
Engr. Baqui, also a naval architect & chartered engineer, noted with appreciation of the ECNEC decision terming it as an epoch-making one in the country's history of shipbuilding.
The decision would pave the way for materializing the long- cherished desire of the country for shipbuilding at the government initiatives and enterprises, said CDDL MD.
Echoing the view of Engr. Baqui, BIWTC chairman Golam Mustafa Kamal told the news agency that they will put forward a document in this regard to the CDDL authority with a request to provide the BIWTC with competitive rates.
"We will pursue to have the two vessels from the CDDL as quickly as possible. Process would be on to carry out the government's decision by any means," Kamal observed.
Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC), an autonomous body run under the Ministry of Industries, was established on July 1, 1976, has now nine industrial units in operation.
The CDDL is one of the best amongst them and now planning to go for major BMRE and setting up of separate facilities for shipbuilding in addition to its on-going ship repair activities.