Ctg port handles largest transhipment cargo

The Chittagong port is hosting its largest transhipment service as it stores 92 TEUs of containers unloaded from a vessel en route to India.

The move will help Chittagong port's prospects of becoming a transhipment hub in the region.

The vessel Irrawaddy Star, which has a capacity of 1,400 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), was headed to Kolkata but decided to reduce its load to allow it to navigate into the shallower Indian port, Khairul Islam, general manager of Min Sheng Lines Bangladesh, said.

The containers stored at Chittagong are destined for Chennai, Mumbai and Cochin -- the three deeper ports on the west coast of India.

The Chittagong port has been used for container transhipment earlier as well, but that was on small scale, said Enamul Karim, terminal manager of Chittagong port Authority. 

The port currently allows 28 days of free storage for transhipment containers, while the limit is just four days for other containers and goods, he said.