Country’s premier seaport Chittagong has set a new record in its history by handling nearly 23.5 lakh Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers in 2016.
A total of 23 lakh 46 thousand TEUs containers were handled by the Chittagong Port till December 31, 2016, which is the highest since the port’s inception in 1977, port sources said.
According to the latest survey of Lloyd’s Register, an old shipping oriented media and UK-based maritime classification society, Chittagong Port authority (CPA) was ranked 76th position among 100 ports in the world by handling record 20 lakh 24 thousand 207 TEUs containers in 2015.
CPA official sources said, CPA faced problems in handling containers because of agitation programmes including work abstention and strike enforced by the owners of prime movers and lighter vessels from May to October last year.
“Despite the hurdles, CPA has recorded a milestone of handling more than 23 lakh TUEs of containers”, the sources said adding that the number of handled containers would reach 26 lakh TUEs if there were no agitation programmes.
According to the records of CPA, the port handled record two lakh 17 thousand 526 TEUs of containers in November while it handled two lakh seven thousand 515 TEUs of containers in December last year.
The Chittagong Port, which started its journey by handling only six TEUs of containers in 1977, is now handling 92 percent of the total export-import goods of the country.
Fire guts houses, shops, mosque: A devastating fire broke out at a slum in city’s Sadarghat area in the small hours of Monday gutting 20 makeshift houses, six shops, a mosque and a madrasa.
The fire originated from an electric short circuit at a house at Maillyar Bil slum and soon engulfed the nearby houses and shops.
A total of 17 fire fighting units from Chandanpura, Nandankanon, Lamar Bazar, Agrabad and Port stations rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire.Valuables worth about TK 30 lakh were gutted in the fire, fire service sources said.
