The shutdown forced by tropical storm Mahasen in the port city of Chittagong caused a financial loss of about Tk 2,000 crores in terms of production loss and
other business dislocations, business leaders said.
President of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and industry (CCCI), the main trade body of Chittagong, Mahbubul Alam said, ‘We heave a sigh of relief that Mahasen tropical cyclone crossed over Chittagong without leaving a trail of devastation as it weakened. But it rattled our economic sectors with shutdown in our port, shipping, business, export processing zone and other industrial operations forcing us to suffer a financial loss of about Tk 2,000 crores.’
‘This loss caused by Mahasen is not less than that of hartal,’ he added saying, ‘Our business related with port and shipping was badly affected while our factories suffered production loss.’
‘Trade circle in the port city faced a big dislocation due to the sudden shutdown forced by cyclone Mahasen,’ he said.
General manager of Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) Abdur Rashid said, ‘We had to go for a shutdown in all our 171 industries inside this zone from 2pm on Wednesday due to the cyclone Mahasen. As a result, it caused a huge loss to all these industries in production heads in addition to dislocation in import and export functions.’
‘It’s really a blow faced by CEPZ that drew an investment of US $ 1,100 million housing 171 industries and employed 181,000 workers,’ Rashid added.
He informed that industries in the CEPZ would reopen on Saturday.
Managing director of Pacific Jeans Ltd, a leading apparel exporter based inside CEPZ, Nasir Uddin said, ‘After receiving the shutdown notice from the authorities at 2pm we released all the workers from their duties to go home and closed the factory. So it caused a huge loss to us as our production was suspended.’
‘The sudden blow came while we were reeling from the impact of Savar tragedy,’ he added.
Harbour master of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Farid Ahmed informed that the port incurred some revenue loss after all the vessels were forced to move to the outer sea from port jetties after signal number 7 was hoisted for the cyclone Mahasen.
‘Those vessels can re-enter the port jetties on Friday morning during high tide as the ships need tidal support for berthing inside,’ he said.
Other dislocations in port and shipping business also caused economic loss, he added.
-With New Age input
