The newly-built Patenga Container Terminal (PCT) of the Chattogram port has officially started running with Saudi operator Red Sea Gateway Terminal (RSGT) Bangladesh at the helm.
The “Maersk Davao” container ship was berthed at one of the four jetties on the PCT to begin the operations. It is the first time a foreign company has been given the responsibility of running a port terminal in the nation.
Red Sea Gateway Terminal International (RSGTI), a sibling company of Red Sea Gateway Terminal that runs Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia’s largest terminal facility, is the parent company of RSGT Bangladesh.
The PCT has chosen a landlord model in which the Saudi company will manage the PCT’s activities for the next 22 years, with the CPA serving as both the landlord and the regulating authority.
The Chattogram port facilitates ninety per cent of Bangladesh’s import and export activity.
Occupying 32 acres of land, the PCT features three 200-meter jetties and one 220-meter dolphin jetty. Because of its proximity to the Karnaphuli River estuary, it will enable vessel berthing in the least amount of time.
The port can accommodate three vessels with a draft of 10 to 11 metres at a time. It can handle 5 lakh TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers annually.
The operator will invest approximately US $ 170 million to install equipment, read a press release from the Sustained Infrastructure Holding Company, one of the operator’s investors.
The terminal will therefore target the fast-growing import and export market that has an expected annual gateway volume growth rate of 7 percent per annum, underscoring the potential for higher revenues and margins over time, said the company.
Erwin Haaze, the CEO of RSGT Bangladesh, and Rear Admiral Mohammad Sohail, the chairman of the CPA, attended a brief inauguration ceremony at the PCT in the afternoon.
According to the CPA chairman, well-known businesses in this industry will show up in the next few days looking to operate additional terminals, and competition among the operators will boost income.
