Radiant Shipyard -- the manufacturer of the country's first liquefied petroleum gas carrier, Omera Princess -- has won a contract to construct a second vessel for Omera Petroleum.

The keel laying ceremony, which marks the beginning of construction of the vessel, Omera King, took place last week at the premises of Radiant Shipyard in Rupganj, Narayanganj.

The ship will be designed by Radiant Marine Design and built by Radiant Shipyard in about a year's time, at a cost of Tk 32 crore. It would have cost Omera Petroleum Tk 70 crore if it were to source the vessel from abroad, according to Radiant Shipyard.

Omera King will have a higher LPG carrying capacity than Omera Princess -- of 350 tonnes. It will also be longer and wider in dimension than Omera Princess, 63 metres long and 10 metre in width.

The vessel's maximum speed will be 12 knots, which will be achieved by two Japanese Yanmar engines. Three Swedish Volvo Penta generators will be fitted to power the ship. The LPG control systems along with special safety features will be sourced from Belgium and France.

Omera Petroleum, a subsidiary of MJL Bangladesh, is the largest operator in the LPG sector of Bangladesh, with a combined capacity of 100,000 tonne per year.

Radiant Shipyard is also constructing three LPG-bottle carrying vessels, with 3,000 cylinder capacity each, for Energypac Power Generation. They are expected to be delivered in January next year.

Radiant Shipyard was established in 2012 with the view to providing a cheaper alternative to Bangladeshi companies which tend to go to China, Thailand and South Korea to get their vessels built.