Frequent strikes and blockades have struck a big blow to the export and import business through the Chittagong port as the container delivery service has tumbled amid the programmes called by the opposition political parties. Officials concerned and business leaders said ships were departing from the port, loading export cargoes below their capacity.Owners of the private inland container depots and exporters said the container delivery service faced the setback amid frequent hartals and blockades marked with violence.
Businesses and 16 ICDs in Chittagong have incurred huge losses as a large number of import cargoes got stuck at the Chittagong port while several thousand containers fell stranded at the ICDs, they said adding that the traders were forced to bear huge demurrage and penal rents against their containers stuck at the port and the ICDs.
The port authority fears that the port might witness a congestion of import containers as only 200-300 import containers are now being delivered a day due to hartals and blockades. Usually 2,000 import containers get delivered a day.
‘Container delivery service to and from the port and the ICDs has almost collapsed due to the ongoing political turmoil that has caused huge losses to businesses,’ Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mahbubul Alam told New Age.
Fearing attacks by pickets on roads and highways, businesspeople hardly take the risk of transporting their cargo-laden containers to and from the port, he said.
Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association president Nurul Qayum Khan said,
‘Operational activities of the ICDs have almost collapsed after the plunge in the container delivery service and we are suffering a major setback.’
He said that many of the owners of the ICDs might become defaulters with banks as the ICDs were set up with an investment of around Tk 5,000 crore, mostly financed by banks.
As on Tuesday, first day of the 4th round of blockade, 29,000 containers loaded with import cargoes remained stuck at the Chittagong port and several thousand containers remained stuck at the 16 ICDs here due to delivery problem only, Qayum said.
Muntasir Rubayet, director of a private ICD, said that ships had departed with export cargoes below their loading capacity as the delivery of containers loaded with export cargoes to the Chittagong port from private ICDs was disrupted.
Former vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association Nasir Uddin Chowdhury said though the exporters were now transporting their goods under police protection, but the number of containers transported was very low compared with that in normal time.
‘Ships left the port with smaller amount of export goods because only 20-25 per cent of export goods were carried to the port due to the current political situation,’ Exporters Association of Bangladesh president Abdus Salam Murshedy said.
From November 30 to December 12, a total of 10,710
trucks and covered vans moved to and from the Chittagong port under police protection, the BGMEA statistics showed.
The data showed that a total of 4,060 trucks and covered vans, out of the 10,710, moved to the Chittagong port with export goods.
But, the transportation of goods from and to the Chittagong port under police escort tumbled on Wednesday as miscreants burnt seven covered vans which were heading from Chittagong to Dhaka at Sitakunda on Tuesday night.
Chittagong Port Authority director (traffic) Golam Sarwar said, ‘We have started sending some containers through river routes to newly-built Pangaon Container Terminal on board the two container ships owned by the port as port sheds have the capacity to accommodate over 30,000 containers.’
-With New Age input
