Little impact of hartal on Ctg port activities

A countrywide dawn to dusk hartal enforced by opposition parties BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami yesterday had little impact on operational activities at the Chattogram port.

Loading and unloading of containers and cargo at the port jetties went on as usual while the pace of cargo deliveries from the port yards was slightly slow, said officials and users of the port.

Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Secretary Md Omar Faruk said there was no impact on loading or unloading cargo and containers from 15 vessels anchored at different jetties.

There were fewer vehicles entering the port to take delivery of cargo and they exited at a slower pace than usual, he said, adding that many vehicles preferred to wait out the hartal inside the port after loading cargo.

He claimed that no export container had missed shipment since all the vessels departed the port on schedule during the morning tide yesterday. The export containers bound for those vessels had reached the port by Saturday night.

Kazi Mahmud Imam Bilu, general secretary of Chattogram Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association, said trucks and trailers usually enter the port around 12:00pm to take cargo.

He added that Sunday mornings usually see fewer deliveries.

Transport of import and export laden containers between the port and the private inland container depots (ICDs) in the port city and its outskirts continued as normal, informed Md Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (Bicda).

"There is only one vessel scheduled to leave the port tomorrow (Monday) morning and most of the export containers bound for that ship were sent from the ICDs by Saturday night. The rest will be sent after the hartal," Sikder said.

He informed that at least 35 TEUs of import laden containers could be transported from the port to the private depot he was at up until afternoon, which was quite normal.