Ctg container handling to go automated

Chittagong Port Authority will introduce computerised container terminal management system (CTMS) next month to streamline its container operations, said the port's Chairman Commodore M Anwarul Islam yesterday.
About 92 percent work of the CTMS project has already been completed and it could be introduced by end-May, Islam added at a press meet to celebrate the port's 124th founding anniversary in Chittagong today.
He said the port is ready to face the challenges of handling an additional one lakh TEUs of containers per year with the introduction of transit to Bangladesh's neighbours.
Describing various ongoing projects at the port, the port chairman said the much-talked about Tk 229 crore project agreement for capital dredging in Karnaphuli River will be signed between CPA and Malaysian maritime and dredging company on Thursday.
With CTMS implemented, the port users especially the importers and exporters sitting in front of computers will be able to get information about the arrival and departure of containers and vessels, submit documents and receive and pay bills online.
ST Electronics, Singapore, Navis America and Psion Teklogix are jointly working on the technology-based project funded by the Asian Development Bank.
“Once implemented, the project will boost the capacity of the port as a world-class port in true sense,” Islam said.
The system will automatically monitor the entire process of container delivery including arrival, unloading from ship, shifting to the yard, stacking, tracking the particular container and delivery.
Berthing schedules and allocating berths for the arrival and departure of the vessels could be automatically fixed in coordination with the tidal periods through CTMS, said Khairul Mostafa, project director of CTMS.
Container handling equipment could load and unload containers automatically, said Mostafa adding that the containers could be automatically stacked at the directed spots in the terminals and yards through pre-planned direction.
The port users or owners of containers will be able to pay bills from their offices online, he said. The gate control and management system would also be automated, he added.
CPA chairman said the 'turn around' time of the vessels in the port will be reduced through implementation of the CTMS as the vessels would be berthed in a planned way and thus the port users specially the importers would be financially benefited.
The productivity of the yards also could be increased, as the containers would be stacked according to geographical location, he said.
The manual interpretation and paper documentation would be significantly reduced with the implementation of the automation system, he hoped. The capacity and efficiency of the port would be increased up to 50 percent with CTMS in place, he said.
One of the officials said around 900 officials and staff of the CPA and terminal operators have already been trained up on different modules of the computerised management system.
Chittagong port authority is going to implement another project, vessel traffic management information system (VTMIS), to mordernise the monitoring of vessel movement.
With the implementation of the VTMIS, the port authority will be able to monitor all the vessels moving within around 20 nautical miles stretching from Karnaphuli into the Bay.
A port official said piracy in the port channel and the outer anchorage would be contained as vessels could be cautioned through the computerised traffic management system.
Major tasks of the management and op-eration of the port could be brought under the automated system by implementing the two projects, hoped the official.
Md Nazrul Islam, CPA member for administration and planning; M Shahjahan, member for harbour and marine, and senior officials were also present at the conference.
The history of port can be traced back to the fourth century BC when ships from the Middle East and China used it. The port was popular with the early European mariners as 'Shetgang' from the ninth century to 15th century.
The port began functioning as a statutory government body on April 25 in 1887 through the formulation of Port Commissioners Act and thus the port operation began at the present location.