News Content
Bangladesh inland waterways help reduce costs and ease congestion
SHIPPING officials in Bangladesh are optimistic that a spike in inland waterway capacity will ease congestion on highways to the capital Dhaka and reduce costs for shippers.
The cost of transporting one 20-foot container to Chittagong from Dhaka by water is US$99, far lower than trucking costs that range from $200 to $300, according to the manager of Pangaon Iinland Container Terminal, Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury, reported IHS Media.
Some 70 per cent of containers at the Chittagong port originate in or are destined for Dhaka, of which nearly 83 per cent are hauled by truck.
Currently at least five 180 TEU vessels regularly carry containers to and from Chittagong and other domestic ports along with cabotage volumes to inland container terminals (ICTs), and those five ships will soon be joined by another six. More capacity will come online in the future as the government has just approved construction of five more 180 TEU ships that will join 13 others already under construction and 14 on order.
"We need at least 42 container vessels to run the three already built ICTs if we want one voyage each day in seven days in a week," Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chariman Commodore Mozammel Haque told JOC.
A flurry of ICT construction is accompanying the surge in inland waterway capacity, with two ICTs due to open shortly, and others are under construction in Narayanganj and Ashuganj. The government in August approved construction of another ICT within 15 kilometres of Dhaka.
The only ICT in operation at present near Dhaka is the Pangaon ICT, which currently has a utilisation rate of 10 per cent.
The cost of transporting one 20-foot container to Chittagong from Dhaka by water is US$99, far lower than trucking costs that range from $200 to $300, according to the manager of Pangaon Iinland Container Terminal, Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury, reported IHS Media.
Some 70 per cent of containers at the Chittagong port originate in or are destined for Dhaka, of which nearly 83 per cent are hauled by truck.
Currently at least five 180 TEU vessels regularly carry containers to and from Chittagong and other domestic ports along with cabotage volumes to inland container terminals (ICTs), and those five ships will soon be joined by another six. More capacity will come online in the future as the government has just approved construction of five more 180 TEU ships that will join 13 others already under construction and 14 on order.
"We need at least 42 container vessels to run the three already built ICTs if we want one voyage each day in seven days in a week," Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chariman Commodore Mozammel Haque told JOC.
A flurry of ICT construction is accompanying the surge in inland waterway capacity, with two ICTs due to open shortly, and others are under construction in Narayanganj and Ashuganj. The government in August approved construction of another ICT within 15 kilometres of Dhaka.
The only ICT in operation at present near Dhaka is the Pangaon ICT, which currently has a utilisation rate of 10 per cent.
Latest News
- For the first time, tianjin Port realized the whole process of dock operati...
- From January to August, piracy incidents in Asia increased by 38%!The situa...
- Quasi-conference TSA closes as role redundant in mega merger world
- Singapore says TPP, born again as CPTPP, is now headed for adoption
- Antwerp posts 5th record year with boxes up 4.3pc to 10 million TEU
- Savannah lifts record 4 million TEU in '17 as it deepens port
