Bangladesh Has One Drydock, and the Navy Decides How Busy It Is

There's exactly one graving dock in Bangladesh capable of taking an ocean-going commercial vessel, and it's run by the Navy. If you're a ship manager planning a Bangladesh drydock, that single fact shapes everything else about how the booking conversation goes, slot availability, priority, and realistic lead time all run through Chittagong Dry Dock Limited, and CDDL has its own naval shipbuilding programme competing for the same yard space your vessel needs. Before committing, confirm defect evidence, class or flag instructions, terminal permission, contractor or surveyor capability, spare-part status and the safe access window for the vessel’s actual position. Workshop and contractor capacity are not guaranteed; confirm scope, timing and authority permissions before committing the vessel.

What CDDL can actually take

The graving dock measures 182.9 metres by 27.4 metres, originally rated for vessels up to 16,500 DWT, though CDDL now docks vessels up to roughly 20,000-22,000 DWT where length and breadth fall within the dock's limits. CDDL's own repair profile covers general cargo ships (66-192m), bulk carriers (80-190m), oil and chemical tankers (112-138m), RORO cargo vessels, tugs and offshore support vessels, a genuinely broad commercial repair scope, not a narrow naval-only facility. It's certified by ClassNK (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai) for thickness measurement work, which matters if your class survey requires that specific certification on the report.

The naval programme is the variable nobody quotes you upfront

Since the Navy took over CDDL in December 2015, the yard has been building offshore patrol vessels and is now working toward an ambitious indigenous frigate programme, six guided-missile frigates under Bangladesh's naval modernisation plan, originally targeting commissioning between 2022 and 2030, though the public timeline has already slipped due to the scale of the build. None of that naval work directly bars a commercial drydock booking, but it does mean yard capacity and scheduling priority aren't purely first-come-first-served the way they might be at a dedicated commercial repair yard elsewhere in the region. A ship manager booking a slot should ask directly about current naval programme load on the dock, not just assume standard commercial availability.

There's no real fallback if CDDL can't take your vessel

Khulna Shipyard and Dockyard & Engineering Works (DEW), both also under Bangladesh Navy management, handle vessels up to around 5,000 tonnes, mostly coastal, inland and smaller naval craft rather than ocean-going commercial tonnage. If your vessel doesn't fit CDDL's dock dimensions or DWT ceiling, the realistic answer for a Bangladesh-based drydock isn't a domestic alternative, it's looking at Colombo, Singapore or a regional yard instead, and building that into your maintenance schedule planning rather than assuming Bangladesh always has a fallback option.

What to confirm before booking

Vessel dimensions against the dock's actual current operating envelope, not the original 16,500 DWT design figure. Current naval programme load and realistic slot timing, ask specifically, don't assume. Whether your required class survey work (thickness measurement, hull inspection) matches CDDL's ClassNK certification scope or needs a separate arrangement. And book with real lead time; this is the only domestic option, which means less scheduling flexibility than a market with multiple competing yards.