Songa Cheetah leaves Ctg port

A small sized container vessel, MV Songa Cheetah, left the Chattogram port for Italy's Port of Ravenna yesterday afternoon with 952 TEUs of export-laden containers, marking the first round trip in container shipping service between Bangladesh and Europe.

Officials of the ship's local agent said the Liberian-flagged vessel was expected to reach the Italian port within 16 days.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan termed the new service as a milestone in the history of the country's container transport on sea routes since this was the first container vessel taking export cargo from the Chattogram port directly to any European destination, the major market of the country's readymade garment products.

If any shipping company introduces such direct services involving other European ports, the CPA would offer all out cooperation including priority berthing for those ships, Shahjahan added.

However, at least 33 TEUs of export-laden containers could not be sent on this ship since those containers could not be transported from private inland container depot (ICD) Summit Alliance Port due to a sudden work abstention enforced by drivers of container-carrying prime movers of the ICD.

Mohammad Rashed, chairman of the ship's local agent Reliance Shipping and Logistics, said uncertainty arose centring transport of at least 60 TEUs of export containers from the ICD due to the sudden work abstention.

Later, under the prompt initiative of the CPA chairman, some 27 TEUs of containers could be brought from the ICD under police protection and were loaded onto the ship right before it set sail.

It is a really unfortunate incident for a maiden initiative, he said.

In this regard, CPA Chairman Shajahan said those who obstructed transport of those containers have actually tried to tarnish the image of the country.

Songa Cheetah arrived directly from Port of Ravenna on Saturday morning carrying 945 TEUS of empty containers and 7 TEUs of import-laden containers and got berth at the port jetty within two hours.

Italian shipping company Kalypso Compagnia di Navigazione SPA has introduced this new direct waterborne service between Chattogram and the Italian port with two small sized vessels, Songa Cheetah and Cape Flores.

Under the new service, one of these two vessels would arrive at the port every 22 days to take away export cargo.