Payra Port in Kalapara, Patuakhali, has added five new cargo- and container-handling machines to its first terminal, bringing its 650-metre multipurpose berth to full operational capacity.
The equipment arrived on the mother vessel Fan Zhou-6, which berthed directly at the terminal jetty on 7 October. It was the first direct mother-vessel call at the terminal in nearly two years.
The new equipment
- Two 80-tonne ship-to-shore cranes
- Two 40-tonne rubber-tyred gantry cranes
- One 80-tonne mobile harbour crane
The machines were built by China’s Nanjing Port and Harbour Machinery Co and Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group. The 170-metre Fan Zhou-6, with a draft of about six metres, left China’s Pingtan Port on 18 September.
Navigability is the next test
Payra Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral Syed Saiful Islam said keeping the Rabnabad Channel navigable through dredging would allow larger mother vessels to berth directly at the jetty. He added that a yard for imported vehicles is also ready.
Only two mother vessels had called at the terminal before this, both carrying stone: MV Zain in May 2024 and MV Da Hong-16 in November 2024.
Source: The Daily Star.
Photo: Representative image of container cranes; not Payra Port. Roy Upam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
