Bangkok Port is located at 13°42' N 100°34' E on the left bank of the Chao Phraya River in the Klong Toey District of Bangkok, about 15 miles from the river mouth.

　

 Approach to the port is through the bar channel, about 18 km long, 100 m wide in the reaches (to be widened to 135 m) and 250 m wide at the bend. The channel is maintained to a depth of -8.5 m MSL (-6.2 m LLW). Vessel size at BKP is limited to LOA 172m, draft 8.2 m (about 12.000 DWT). The river channel is about 300 m wide at -8.0 m MSL. Refer figure attached.

　

 The total port land area is about 360 ha.

　

 BKP is under administration of the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT).

　

The berth facilities at BKP are as follows (refer Figure attached):

　

　

 In addition, there are a total of 71 private berth facilities on both sides of the Chao Phraya River, and 13 midstream berths. Three private terminals are allowed to handle containers ; 14 private berths handle imported petroleum products.

　

　

　

 Port working hours are 24 hours/day (3 shifts).

　

 In 1992 the berth occupancy was 75% for the seven container berths at the East Quay and 78% for the ten general cargo berths at the West Quay.

　

 Container operations (East Quay) are hampered by the limited yard space which precludes the preparation of export stacks and by direct delivery, also from off-dock container yards. The overall quayside production was only 12 boxes/hour/vessel resulting in an average vessel at-berth time of 39 hours for a 660 TEU parcel size.

　

 Operations at the West Quay (general cargo) are hampered by the narrow apron width, the lack of adequate storage facilities and the delays in moving cargo from quayside to storage, or due to direct delivery. Gross productivity of general cargo handling (JICA, 1994) was 51 tonnes/vessel/hour, resulting in an average vessel at-berth time of 3.5 days for a parcel size of 4,230 tonnes.

　

 Bangkok Port cargo is mainly transported by road through the Bangkok Metropolitan Area. To reduce congestion the Traffic Department has restriced port traffic into Bangkok between 06.00 - 09.00 and 16.00 - 19.00 hours.

　

 Government policy encourages barge transport from Bangkok Port to up-river destinations. After a recent feasibility study indicating that container movement by barge would be a viable altemative to road transport, trial operations using 30 TEU barges have been started in 1995. A constraint to the development of container barge transport is the limited air draft (5.5 m at HW) at governing bridges.

　

 In 1994, cargo throughput through Bangkok Port was about 3.5 million tonnes of general cargo/break bulk and 1.3 million TEUS.

　

 Present Government policy is to reduce the number of TEUs handled in BKP to 1,000,000 TEUs immediately, and to 500,000 TEUs as a further future goal.

　

 JICA (July, 1994) has carried out a detailed study on the Modernization of Bangkok Port.

　

 The main findings and recommendations of the report relate to the improvement of the container operations at East Quay to handle the volume of 1.0 million TEUs as per present government policy.

　

 A new operational organization is recommended in which all operations are wholly controlled by one terminal operater in stead of the present system under which individual shipping lines/agents carry out various operations independently (as permitted by PAT for each operation).

　

 Physical improvements recommended in the JICA report relate to eliminating the present chaotic condition in the handling of LCL containers and improving the container yard operations and efficiency, introducing tight stacking by using RTGs to maximize the efficient utilization of the restricted yard area.

　

 The proposed development would reduce the berth occupancy at the East Quay to about 27%. The total costs are estimated at 3.5 billion Baht for the Master Plan to be implemented by 2005, of which the Short-Term Plan, to be implemented by 1997, would cost 1.2 billion Baht