Despite immediate boost in Bangladesh’s non-public transport sector, the deliver-owned Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC) has considered an on a customary foundation decline in its immediate ability over time mainly in the absence of accurate repairs.
In the origin boasting 44 ships, the BSC’s numbers dwindled to factual two by 2018. While six unique vessels have been added in 2019, the immediate has remained static for the previous 5 years.
In 2022, the vessel Banglar Samriddhi used to be deserted following a rocket attack on the Port of Olvia in Ukraine.
Honest fair nowadays, on 30 September, the lighter vessel MT Banglar Jyoti used to be severely broken in an explosion and fireplace at Chattogram port, leading to three fatalities.
Issues have been raised over whether this 37-12 months-light ship would maybe be reintegrated into the immediate. Every other vessel, MT Banglar Shourabh, moreover light 37, has raised security questions regarding oil transportation following the Banglar Jyoti incident.
Industry insiders dispute the non-public sector in Bangladesh’s transport commerce has evolved critically.
Since 2018, the need of Bangladeshi ocean-going vessels has surged by seventy 9. Earlier than 2018, there have been exclusively 23 Bangladeshi-flagged vessels.
The enactment of the Bangladesh Flag Vessels (Safety of Hobby) Act, 2019, has spurred non-public funding, leading to the need of ocean-going vessels surpassing 100 by 2024.
Captain Sabbir Mahmud, foremost officer on the Chattogram Mercantile Marine Place of job, said that 102 registered Bangladeshi-flagged ocean-going vessels are presently energetic, with two more trying forward to registration.
Stakeholders in the transport commerce estimate that the marketplace for transporting Bangladeshi import and export items by sea is valued at practically $500 million, with the majority benefiting foreign ship householders.
On the annual total conferences of the Shipping Corporation, officers from the Ministry of Shipping automatically inform plans to procure unique ships. In the previous two conferences, plans have been published to add 20 more vessels, including bulk containers and container carriers, by 2030.
With assorted mega-projects underway across the ports, equivalent to the Matarbari Deep-Sea Port and the Bay Terminal, stakeholders explain that the Corporation must develop its immediate without discover to aid foreign replace earnings and set up job opportunities in the field.
Syed Mohammad Arif, chairman of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association, said, “Personal funding in Bangladesh’s global transport commerce has elevated in fresh years, but the Shipping Corporation has no longer made identical progress. We hope the Corporation implements its plans for buying unique ships on time.”
Shipping Corporation stops utilizing the 2 getting older ships for oil transport
The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has categorised the broken MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Shourabh as perilous vessels.
A seven-member investigation committee, led by Md Sharif Hasnat, managing director of Jap Refinery Ltd, reported that each ships, inbuilt 1987, have reached the highest of their operational lifespan.
In response, the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation has made up our minds to forestall utilizing the 37-12 months-light MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Shourabh for oil transport, deeming them unsafe. Till unique ships are bought, BSC will depend upon chartered vessels for transporting BPC’s coarse oil.
Bangladesh Shipping Corporation Managing Director Commodore Mahmudul Malek instructed TBS, “Bureaucratic complications and political instability are the important reasons hindering the restoration of the commerce’s unhappy field.
As a consequence of the shortage of different vessels in the country, these getting older ships had beforehand been saved operational thru diligent repairs, he added.
The investigation committee suggested that BSC urgently build a Single Point Mooring scheme with a double pipeline to take care of coarse oil unloading. It moreover informed forming a technical committee to evaluate the suitability of the closing lighter vessels.
BPC faces doable delays and charges
The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation’s oil unloading operations are presently at probability attributable to a lack of vessels.
Per the company, mother vessels carrying imported coarse oil anchor in the Kutubdia Outer Anchorage dwelling, the attach each vessel holds no longer no longer as a lot as 100,000 tonnes of oil but can not entry Chattogram port attributable to shallow depths.
Lighter vessels, equivalent to MT Banglar Jyoti and MT Banglar Shourabh, transport oil from Kutubdia to the Dolphin Oil Jetty of Jap Refinery.
For the time being, oil unloading operations are being performed utilizing MT Banglar Shourabh, leading to doable delays. The BPC faces an estimated day to day fee of over $20,000 in extra rent costs for the vessel.
Speaking to TBS, Kabir Mahmud, director (Advertising and marketing) of the BPC, said, “We are conducting oil unloading with one lighter vessel. It is unsure whether the broken vessel may maybe maybe perhaps perhaps moreover be repaired. If it is no longer operational, we can talk about chartering but any other vessel with the BSC.”
