KOTA
KINABALU PORT PASSENGER TERMINAL
The
new Kota Kinabalu Port Passengers Terminal replaces the dozen of private
jetties sprawled along the seafront of Kota kinabalu City. It is located at the
old Kota Kinabalu Wharf, which has been de-commisioned for cargo handling in
1988.
This RM3 million project ids the landing point for boats and ferries plying to and from Labuan, Brunei, Tunku Abdul Rahman national Park and Gaya Island.
The land-side development
includes the ticketing office, waiting lounge, road works, car park and an
immigration counter. The terminal was put into use in March 2002. Four ferry
services to/from Labuan are available daily, each with a carrying capacity of
more than 100 passengers.
The boat services for
interisland caters to tourists and holiday-makers to the nearby islands of
Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park.
The third type of service
that makes use of this terminal is the boats ferrying residents of the Gaya
Island.
With the commissioning of
this new terminal, the illegal private jetties along the city’s seafront have
now been demolished. The flow of passengers in and out of Kota Kinabalu city is
now regulated.
WESTPORT, on target to hitting 2.1 mil boxes this
year, will further maximize its container handling and storage capacity with
the completion of its RM 67.5mil container three (CT3) yard area by next month.
The project, which includes the construction of a new container stacking yard,
a container freight section (CFS) and a maintenance and reefer block will put
the port in good position to handle the anticipated box traffic growth. Zones
F, HG and H have been completed and is currently being use, providing an
additional 4,326 ground slots and 240 reefer points. With a stacking of four
containers high, the CT3 yard alone will be able to accommodate 16,584 TEUs.
This is in addition to the already exiting 2,760 total ground slots in
Container Terminal1 and 4,842 in Container Terminal 2 With another 288 reefer
slots.
Zone G, H were completed in September while the
third package, which consist of a CFS and a maintenance and repair (M & R)
Building was due to be ready next month. The 3,00 sq m station, which was
located at the back of the new CT3, would have nine loading bays and allow
users carry out stuffing, un-stuffing and re-packaging activities. This is
Westport’s fourth CFS. The new M & R Workshop is designed to conduct repair
for rubber-tyred gantries, top loaders and reach stacker.
He terminal also recently installed CCTVs around
container yard areas to ensure productivity of stacking operations and security
of boxes at all times. The CT3 project, which included the construction of an
addition 600m wharf length completed in March last year, began in November 1999
and funding was from RM310mil government loan granted to Westport under the
Eight Malaysia Plan.
It is learnt that Westport is in the process of
negotiating terms with the Treasury Department for another soft loan fro the
construction of another 2.5km of container wharf length. Te terminal now has an
existing 2kn container quay length with six berths and 18 super-post panamax
gantry cranes, of which will be increased to reach 20 by year-end. The design
plans for the new container wharf was already in the advanced stages and the
port would start calling for tenders when approval from the authorities was
given. When completed, the new berths would be able to accommodate vessels of
the 10,000 TEU capacities with dead weight of 12,000 tones compared to the
current wharves that can take in seventh and eight generation, container ships
of 80,000 deadweight tones. If all goes well, we hope to start construction by
early next year.
Length of the new berth would be followed by
extension of the rail track and new container siding line, which was currently
stopped at Container Terminal 1. He added that a fourth 100m Liquid Bulk Berth
will be built next year at its liquid n\bulk terminal to cater for the
increased volume and customers at the facility. We have already obtained an environmental
impact assessment (EIA) report from the department of Environment and hope to
call for tenders as soon as we get the relevant statutory submissions approved.
The berth, would enable the port to receive vessels of 100,000 deadweight tones
and a draft depth of 16m with pipe-racking for the end users he said. Fuel and
Marine Marketing LLC, a subsidiary of Chevron-Texaco, recently set up its
bunker storage facility in Westport.
Westport recorded a 46.5% increase in container throughput to 1.7mil TEUs for the nine months of the year compared to 1.15mil boxes the same period last year. Out of the 1.7mil boxes, transshipment traffic accounted for 1.06mil TEUs, the remainder comprising import/export movement. From January to October last year, transshipment recorded was 644,726 TEUs. These volumes further strengthened Westport’s position as a regional transshipment hub. Total container throughput for October was also the highest monthly volume with 190,025 TEUs handled. Currently, Westport holds a 56% market share of Port Klang’s total transshipment volume and is fast reaching market share of container traffic in Port Klang.
In terms of Conventional cargo, it handled 6.3mil
freight weight tones from January to September this year compared to 5.3mil FWT
the same period last year. I related development, more than 100 forwarding
firms and 200 agent have been issued with Westport’s smart card security
system., which became partly operational on Oct 31. The smart card is being
used by haulers and forwarders to identify themselves at the port before cargo
can be cleared. Operations and security of the terminal is expected to improve
by verification and checking of the necessary documents.