Chittagong port yet to get rid of container congestion
A huge backlog of containers continues to clog Chittagong port despite an end to a four-day strike by large container carriers.
The port that channels about 97 percent of the country's imports and exports is suffering as a result.
Four vessels were scheduled to leave the port yesterday, but only one left and the rest three -- A Idefix, Sea Master and Alidra -- opted to stay one more day as they did not get the required number of export containers.
Shakil Ahsan, general manager of NYK Line (Bangladesh), a local agent of A Idefix, said they are yet to receive more than 100 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of export containers.
The agent appealed to the port authority to allow it to stay one more day, in hopes that the 16 private inland container depots will manage to send containers overnight. Prime Mover, Trailer Malik Sramik Oikya Parishad, a platform of owners and workers of large container carriers, went on an indefinite strike on September 26, after the Road Transport and Highways Division launched a crackdown on overloaded vehicles on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
Since the resumption of the operation of the carriers on Friday after the strike, a total of 1,469 TEUs of export containers were sent to the port from the depots.
The ICDs, also known as off-docks, were still overcrowded with 6,070 TEUs of export-laden containers till yesterday afternoon. The strike affected about 7,000 TEUs containers.
Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association, said the off-docks could run their operation smoothly if their storage of export-laden containers was 4,500 to 5,000 TEUs. As of yesterday, a total of 40,470 TEUs of containers were piled up at the port yards against its storage capacity of 36,357 TEUs.
After the strike was deferred, about 2,251 TEUs of containers were delivered from the port as of yesterday morning. Of them, 1,223 TEUs were import-laden containers.
Eleven container vessels were also waiting at the outer anchorage for berthing at the port jetties.
Golam Sarwar, director for traffic of Chittagong Port Authority, said deliveries were slow as it was the weekend. “It will get a boost from today, and congestion will lessen within the week.” Since August 17, if a trailer on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is found weighing more than 33 tonnes, it is subject to fines starting from Tk 2,000 to Tk 12,000.
The platform leaders accused the Road Transport and Highways Division staff of harassing the trailer drivers for fines.
Besides, the cut-off weight of 33 tonnes is unfair as per international metrics of overloaded vehicles, they added.
It postponed the indefinite strike until October 4, following a meeting with Chittagong Metropolitan Police Commissioner Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury.
Leaders of the platform said the CMP commissioner assured them of allowing a 14-wheel prime mover to carry a maximum of 42 tonnes on the highways till October 4, when an inter-ministerial meeting is scheduled to be held in Dhaka.
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