The container handling activities are being hampered at the Chittagong Seaport due to piles of stranded containers at the yards, caused by slow delivery in the backdrop of repeated hartals and blockades enforced by the BNP-led 18-party alliance in the recent period.
According to sources at the port authority, there were around 27,000 and 785 TEUs (Twenty Equivalent Units) of containers stranded at 19 yards of the port till yesterday afternoon – 9% below the capacity to house a total of 30,886 TEUs.
Sources said usually container handling become inconvenient when more than 70% space of the yards remain occupied by containers. Yesterday, 91% space of the yards remained occupied with containers.
“We have the capacity to handle 19,487 TEUs of goods-laden containers. There are currently 21,139 TEUs of goods laden containers at the port,” said a CPA official, adding that they were not getting space to release goods through opening containers for this reason.
Nearly 2,000 containers were being off loaded at the port from the vessels in a day, he said, adding they were apprehending congestions of containers as the delivery from the port also remained slow during the hartal and blockade.
Sayad Farhad Uddin Ahmed, secretary to the CPA, however, said they had not yet received any complaint of hindrance in container movement. He said they would be able to house at least 5,000 TEUs of containers beyond the capacity through taking special measure.
“We are not apprehending container congestion immediately as we have been releasing significant number of containers even during the hartals and blockades,” he said.
Shipping agency sources said usually transportation of goods increases during the month of December as they were apprehending immediate deadlock with hartals and blockades intensifying alarmingly during this pick month.