Bangladesh: Western Marine Shipyard Lays Keel for New Container Vessel

Western Marine shipyard on Thursday inaugurated the construction work of one 134 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) container vessel by laying a keel at the shipyard premises, Patiya. This is the first time the company will build container ships for inland route (CPA-PICT). The ship will be constructed under German class Germanischer Lloyd (GL).

To this effect, Western Marine signed an agreement with GL for classification of this ship on September 6, 2012 in Germany. The deal was made at the largest shipbuilding exhibition ‘SMM 2012’ in Hamburg.

The Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Zahir Uddin Ahmed attended in the keel laying ceremony as a chief guest and Danish Ambassador in Bangladesh H.E. Svend Olling as a Special Guest. The ship will be owned by Mir & Islam Enterprise, a private entrepreneur which was awarded a license for one container ship out of thirty-two similar licenses issued by the government recently.

Shipyard MD Sakhawat Hossain said: “traffic congestion in highways will drop for introducing such container ships in our river channels, and government should prevent import of second hand ships from abroad because such ships are hazardous to environment & unsafe. In the other hand ships being built in local yard are built under class & according to the rules of Department of Shipping“.

Chairman Saiful Islam said “Bangladesh government has issued thirty-two licenses for such vessel, and Western Marine has ensured the new construction of five of these vessels”.

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Shipbuilding Tribune Staff, September 24, 2012; Image: wms