The Chittagong port yesterday added 10 pieces of container handling equipment to its fleet, as part of efforts to give pace to loading and unloading activities.

The equipment comprises a rail mounted gantry crane, six rubber tyred gantry cranes, a log handler and two mobile cranes having 20-tonne capacity.

These were purchased from China, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Italy for Tk 118.50 crore.

Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan introduced the new equipment at the New Mooring Container Terminal with Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Commodore Zulfiqur Aziz in the chair.

The minister also inaugurated a newly built Tk 14.45 crore worth dolphin oil jetty at River Mooring-3, which has the capacity to berth 190-metre vessels. The jetty will be used to ease unloading of edible oil, for which floating gangways were previously used.

The rail mounted gantry crane, costing Tk 21.96 crore, was installed at Chittagong Container Terminal for faster loading and unloading of containers at the railway wagons to and from Kamalapur's Inland Container Depot in Dhaka.

The use of the crane would cut the time for container handling to and from a train by a half to four hours, Aziz said.

Mahbubul Alam, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stressed the need for ensuring purchase and arrival of the six pieces of key gantry cranes by the August deadline.

The mother vessels can unload goods in 21 days, but they have to wait for a month and a half to complete the task due to shortage of jetties, he said.

Alam said he himself have paid $4.80 lakh in demurrages for one such delay.

The shipping minister hoped Patenga Container Terminal and Bay Terminal would go into operation by 2020.