Western Marine Shipyard Ltd laid a keel to build the workboat and cutter suction dredger for Mongla Port Authority.
The workboat is 11.95 meter in length, which will act as an ancillary facility for the cutter suction dredger with 14 meter dredging depth. The dredger will be jointly built by the shipyard and the world renowned Holland based dredger manufacturer IHC Merwede under the supervision of the class Bureau Veritas & the work boat under Germanischer Lloyd.
To this effect, on March last, an agreement under the name of “Procurement of Cutter Suction Dredger with Ancillary Facility ” was signed by the MPA and the IHC-WMShL Ltd.
Chairman of Mongla Port Authority (MPA), Commodore M A K Azad , ndc, psc, BN, inaugurated the keel-laying ceremony as the chief guest at the Kolagaon, Patiya on September 29.
After laying the keel, the MPA chairman spoke high about the shipbuilding industry and said, “ The finest quality ships built by the local shipbuilders for the foreign ship owners will brighten our image further in the overseas.”
He also said, the MPA expects international standard service from the Western Marine and we are hopeful the shipyard will be appreciated once again by the world for its successful building the dredger and the workboat for port use.
Western Marine Chairman Saiful Islam has expressed his optimism about the success of the project.
“ For the first time in Bangladesh, the dredger is going to be built, ” he said adding that they also plan to secure a big portion of the market share in the shipbuilding industry.
Being a riverine nation, Bangladesh will require more dredgers in the future to maintain a certain level of depth in the river ways for navigation, he said.
He also mentioned that the Western Marine always focuses on development of the nation by supporting the public sector.
The shipyard Managing Director, Sakhawat Hossan stated that the dredger will be a world class dredger. He said, “ We have made the joint venture with IHC Merwede for technology transfer and know-how, as they are the best in it. Western Marine never compromises with its quality”.
Bangladesh has recently taken initiative to dredge the port channels in order to enable the larger vessels to use the sea ports.
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Source: wms, October 4, 2011