Now private ICDs are being overwhelmed
To get rid of acute container congestion, the best option for the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) was to shift a bulk of them to the 19 privately owned inland container depots (ICDs) in the city and its outskirts.
And after repeated persuasion by the shipping ministry and the CPA, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on April 23 allowed moving all types of import containers to the ICDs, unloading of goods and making the delivery from there temporarily.
Subsequently, the CPA started doing so from April 24 and the move helped noticeably ease the congestion in the Chattogram port.
But now containers are getting piled up at the ICDs, popularly known as off-docks, because of a slow delivery -- in an unwelcome development that can overwhelm them and lead to fresh congestion at the port again.
As of yesterday, 63,251 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers, including import-bound, export-bound and empty, were lying at the ICDs against their combined capacity of 77,700 TEUs.
Up to 94 per cent of the space of four out of the 19 ICDs, have already been occupied.
In the last 22 days to yesterday, 32,051 TEUs of import containers were shifted to the ICDs, which had already been holding 12,500 TEUs before the latest arrival, according to data from the ICDs. Some 24,250 TEUs were released during the period.
Due to space shortage at the ICDs, the shifting of import containers from the port also decelerated in the last four days.
On average, 1,183 TEUs were shifted daily from the port in the last five days against 1,700 TEUs every day in the first two weeks.
"Containers are piling up mainly because of slow delivery," said Md Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA).
Empty containers are piling up at the ICDs since a good number of them are generated every day after unloading of goods, he said, adding that 38,000 TEUs of empty containers were lying in the ICDs yesterday.
The situation prompted the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) on Thursday to write a letter to the CPA requesting to speed up the removal of empty containers from the off-docks.
BSAA Chairman Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury alleged importers are not taking the delivery from the ICDs at a good pace.
The CPA sent a letter to the shipping ministry informing it about the situation.
CPA Director (traffic) Enamul Karim also wrote to the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Chittagong Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association, urging them to instruct importers to fast-track the delivery both from the ICDs and the port yards.
Otherwise, the capacity would be saturated soon, he said.
Importers blamed the delay in conducting a physical examination of containers by customs and customs intelligence officials as well as manpower and equipment shortage at the ICDs for the slow delivery.
After being transferred to the private ICDs, containers holding imported commercial goods need to be physically examined jointly by the Chattogram Customs House and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) as per an NBR directive.
Due to a lack of coordination among the officials from the Customs House and the CIID, the joint examination is getting delayed leading to a delay in the delivery, said Chittagong Customs C&F Agent Association General Secretary Altaf Hossain in a letter to the NBR.
The delivery is also being delayed for manpower and equipment shortage, he said.
With the existing manpower and equipment, the ICDs delivered the highest 1,826 TEUs on Wednesday and it was 729 TEUs on May 1, Sikder said.
"The ICDs are not responsible for the poor delivery," he said. Rather, it was the importers who got the release of a lower quantity of goods on the day.