Chattogram Bureau :
This undoubtedly is good news as the increase of container amount means increase in gross domestic product, production as well as international trade for a country. Almost all the export items of the country are transported via containers. Most of the raw materials for the industrial sector too are imported via containers here. Despite the slow speed, the progress of Chattogram port has been commended internationally.
But problems of the Chattogram port are increasing too. For increasing throughput of containers, container release is delayed. Chattogram ranks among the top seaports across the world that takes the highest time to release containers.
The biggest obstacle to increase the effectiveness of the port is structural. If the number of jetties is not increased, the delay would not be solved. But the task requires a long period of time. There is no possibility of increasing the number of jetties in one and a half years. But the initiative to solve the congestion cannot be delayed for this. The modification works of the port must be run on a regular basis. Container yard must be expanded as well as the whole management must be strengthened.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has asked businessmen to take faster delivery of imported containers from the port yard to ensure smooth and uninterrupted supply of goods ahead of Ramadan. The CPA has also threatened to penalise importers who delay in taking delivery of containers, because the port yard is on the verge of reaching full capacity.
The Chittagong port has a storage capacity of 49,018 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units). However, its yard was cluttered with 40,039 TEUs on average every day in the last month, taking up 82 percent of the capacity, said sources. On February 6 this year, the highest number of containers – 44,987 TEUs occupying 92 percent storage capacity – were lying around at the yard.
Containers that are not cleared on time cause container congestion, thereby hindering the port’s operation, which leads to price increase of goods in the local market. The port faces container congestion at its yard every year ahead of Ramadan.
The president of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents’ Association, Ahsanul Haque Chowdhury, told, “Some businessmen deliberately do not take delivery of their goods from the port yard because they are waiting for the price to increase in the market by creating an artificial supply shortage.”
