The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) protested the report titled “Container Backlog hits Ctg Port” which was published on January 16 this year. The CPA in a statement on February 9 this year rejected the report saying that Chittagong Port has examined the report and does not agree with the various information published in the report.
It is mentioned in the news that 90 percent of Chittagong port is being used, but it is worth mentioning here that it is the net capacity of Chittagong Port where more containers can be handled .Present Capacity is around 49050 TEU which does mean that in any single Day Chittagong Port can accommodate these quantity, occupancy rate may vary from day to day through the year and it is a normal phenomenon for any sea port. As CPA monitor the trade flow and formulates plans based on that so fears expressed in the published news are completely unfounded. Moreover 4000 TEUs capacity recently added by launching overflow yard. Fully in tune with the current progress of the country Chittagong Port is carrying out extensive development activities.
At this time such type of negative reports will help to misguide the port users as well as the different international users of this port. To expedite the import-export activities of the country, CPA is often taking multiple steps and plan to coordinates with various policies adopted by the government .It is also working for a sustainable port development targeting to achieve the Vision 2041 of present government.
Chittagong port will have new container Terminal in operation from this year namely Patenga Container Terminal which throughput will be 0.45 million per year. Construction of new container yard and storage shed are underway.
Moreover Bay Terminal will also come into operation by 2024 and construction process of Matarbari Deep Sea Terminal has been undertaken and expected to be in operation by 2026 with the operation of Matarbari Port and Bay Terminal, Chittagong Port will be able to handle more 3 million TEUs containers in addition to the present handling in a year. For instance among the amount of containers which exported through Chittagong port every year about 45 to 50 percent are empty containers that is without any cargo. It does mean that if the country’s export activities even increase at mentioned volume in the news it is very much possible to handle by Chittagong Port using current capacity. So if the export target increases, which has been commented that it is impossible to achieve through Chittagong port is completely a misinformation.
