Chittagong Bureau :
Chittagong Bureau: The movement of containers to and from Chittagong Port begins on Friday afternoon following the fruitful discussions between the leaders of Prime Mover Owners and Police commissioner of Chittagong Iqbal Bahar at his residence in the morning.
Immediate after declaration of postponement of strike at about 12 noon, about one thousand containers delivered from the port to different ICDs and Dhaka . Recorded numbers of prime movers left Chittagong for Dhaka in the evening, sources said.
A reliable sources said Prime Mover owners and workers have postponed their strike until October 4 next following the assurances by police commissioner about the harassment of law enforces in the highways.
Prime Mover-Trailer Owners and Workers’ Unity Council called the strike on Monday last for a seven-point charter of demand, including that of cancelling fine for transportation of goods beyond the fixed ceiling.
The association alleged that since the government fixed the ceiling on Aug 16, its workers are harassed whenever Prime trailers are found carrying more than the ceiling.
The strike had almost crippled the port. After two other organisations of transporters announced to join the strike, apex trade body FBCCI on Thursday urged early solution to the stalemate that was hurting export and import Amidst this situation, CMP Commissioner Iqbal Bahar sat with the striking transporters on Friday morning after talks on Thursday failed to find a way out of the situationAfter the meeting with the CMP chief, the Unity Council’s Joint Convenor Golam Mawla quoted authorities as saying that each prime mover would be allowed to carry up to 42.5 tons of goods.To reduce the damage of roads, the authorities on Aug 16 imposed an upper limit on the maximum permissible load that a container carrying vehicle could do.
Transport owners say while they have little to do about container weight, they are being fined Tk 2000 for every ton above the maximum permissible load of 33 tonnes, and the workers are being harassed for the fine at the weighbridges along Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.Mawla said the CMP chief also pledged to make arrangements for collecting the fines from the owners of the containers, not the transporters.
Chittagong Prime Mover-Trailer Workers’ Union General Secretary Humayun Kabir told the media that the strike was postponed until an inter-ministerial meeting scheduled for Oct 4The leaders of the transporters’ associations said the next course of action would be set after the meeting.
Until Thursday, over 40,000 undelivered 20-foot containers were stranded, paralysing the port with a capacity of 36,000 containers.
CMP commissioner told reporters that the Oct 4 meeting would focus on keeping international standards in laws related to freight weight”I hope a decision is taken after analysing all the facts so that no such problem occurs in the future,” he said Workers’ leader Kabir said the CMP chief spoke to Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and confirmed the assurance about the new ceiling.
Chittagong Bureau: The movement of containers to and from Chittagong Port begins on Friday afternoon following the fruitful discussions between the leaders of Prime Mover Owners and Police commissioner of Chittagong Iqbal Bahar at his residence in the morning.
Immediate after declaration of postponement of strike at about 12 noon, about one thousand containers delivered from the port to different ICDs and Dhaka . Recorded numbers of prime movers left Chittagong for Dhaka in the evening, sources said.
A reliable sources said Prime Mover owners and workers have postponed their strike until October 4 next following the assurances by police commissioner about the harassment of law enforces in the highways.
Prime Mover-Trailer Owners and Workers’ Unity Council called the strike on Monday last for a seven-point charter of demand, including that of cancelling fine for transportation of goods beyond the fixed ceiling.
The association alleged that since the government fixed the ceiling on Aug 16, its workers are harassed whenever Prime trailers are found carrying more than the ceiling.
The strike had almost crippled the port. After two other organisations of transporters announced to join the strike, apex trade body FBCCI on Thursday urged early solution to the stalemate that was hurting export and import Amidst this situation, CMP Commissioner Iqbal Bahar sat with the striking transporters on Friday morning after talks on Thursday failed to find a way out of the situationAfter the meeting with the CMP chief, the Unity Council’s Joint Convenor Golam Mawla quoted authorities as saying that each prime mover would be allowed to carry up to 42.5 tons of goods.To reduce the damage of roads, the authorities on Aug 16 imposed an upper limit on the maximum permissible load that a container carrying vehicle could do.
Transport owners say while they have little to do about container weight, they are being fined Tk 2000 for every ton above the maximum permissible load of 33 tonnes, and the workers are being harassed for the fine at the weighbridges along Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.Mawla said the CMP chief also pledged to make arrangements for collecting the fines from the owners of the containers, not the transporters.
Chittagong Prime Mover-Trailer Workers’ Union General Secretary Humayun Kabir told the media that the strike was postponed until an inter-ministerial meeting scheduled for Oct 4The leaders of the transporters’ associations said the next course of action would be set after the meeting.
Until Thursday, over 40,000 undelivered 20-foot containers were stranded, paralysing the port with a capacity of 36,000 containers.
CMP commissioner told reporters that the Oct 4 meeting would focus on keeping international standards in laws related to freight weight”I hope a decision is taken after analysing all the facts so that no such problem occurs in the future,” he said Workers’ leader Kabir said the CMP chief spoke to Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and confirmed the assurance about the new ceiling.
