Waterway strike: Unloading of 32 lakh tonnes imported goods halted
Unloading of 32 lakh tonnes of imported goods from 1,343 cargo vessels remain suspended across the country due to the work abstention enforced by water transport workers since this midnight.
Of the total, 57 large mother vessels are waiting at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port to unload 13.63 lakh tonnes of imported goods, reports our Chattogram correspondent.
These goods include coal, stone, industrial raw materials like cement clinker, slag, fertiliser and different commodity items.
Import goods brought by the big sized mother vessels are usually unloaded to lighter vessels at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port and then transported to around 37 private jetties and several other jetties owned by the industrial plants across the country.
The lighter vessel workers also stopped their operation expressing solidarity with the strike, our correspondent reports quoting Port Authority (CPA) sources.
Meanwhile, transportation and unloading of another 12.89 lakh tonnes of goods, which has been loaded at 986 lighter vessels and are now standing at 37 different ghats including Majhirghat at Chattogram, Narayanganj, Mirpur, Khulna, Noapara, Baghabari, Barishal and Patuakhali, came to a halt due to the work abstention, according to the data collected from Water Transport Cell (WTC), a private organisation that controls a big portion of these lighter vessels.
Apart from these, 300 lighter vessels owned and operated by 11 different industrial groups like Meghna, City, S Alam and Premier cement got stranded with around 5.40 lakh tonnes of industrial raw materials, according to the sources.
Expressing deep concern over the situation, Chattogram Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Mahbubul Alam said they will have to incur a huge financial loss. They will have to count demurrage for a single day for the overstay of the lighter vessels and the mother vessels at the jetties.
Beside the demurrage, there is risk of damage of the goods for not being unloaded timely, said Alam adding that the delay would also hamper the supply chain of transport as well as production in the industries.
Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) Secretary Md Omar Faruk said delivery of imported goods from bigger vessels at the port’s outer anchorage also remained halted.
He, however, informed that loading and unloading of goods and containers from vessels inside the port jetties as well as delivery of goods from port yards were going on normally.
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