The existing backlog of ships at the outer anchorage of the country’s prime seaport Chittagong would ease by this week, official of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) said.
“The port authorities have taken some emergency measures to ease the existing congestion at the port” Harbour Master Mohammad Farid told BSS.
The measures include maintaining the berthing time and serial of ships during unloading cargoes, introducing a special shift during launch time and 24-hour unloading of cargos from the berthing ships.
The official said the port authorities had also taken initiatives to set up new instruments and modernise the existing ones so they could handle loading and unloading of more ships at a time at the port.
According to the official, three rubber tyred gantry crane (RTG) already arrived at the port and five units of forklifts would be here by mid-August. The process of procuring 11 more RTG, four straddle carriers, five container movers and a rail mounted RMG is underway. A tender has also been floated to procure six Ships to Shore gantry cranes.
Besides, CPA has also restricted empty shipment from Off Dock while continuing force shipment of empty containers from Port Yard for smooth unloading of cargoes, he said.
CPA brought down the turnaround time significantly in the past few months, but the outer anchorage recently faced congestion problem due to substantial growth in cargo, container and ships, the official said.
He said more ships anchored at the port to unload a huge amount of goods those were imported at the end of the immediate past financial year.
