Container congestion turned acute at the Chattogram port on July 22 as deliveries remained suspended for a second consecutive day for operational complexities caused by an ongoing internet blackout and a lack of transportation facilities.

At least 1,252 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of containers were unloaded from ships and placed at the port yards on July 22.

As of 8:00am on July 22, there were 42,150 TEUs of containers at the yards.

This is around 78.76 percent of the total storage capacity of 53,518 TEUs, according to data of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

Port officials say it becomes tough to load and unload containers and manoeuvre them through the yards once 60 percent of the storage capacity was reached.

Moreover, importers are having to bear storage rent for each additional day that they are having to keep import-laden containers at the port yards.

Export and import activities have been facing unprecedented disruptions following the countrywide internet blackout since Thursday evening as digital entry of data is a must for port operations, said the port users.

They underscored the need for immediate resumption of internet services to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

Meanwhile, container handling activities have dropped by around 50 percent as only 5,079 TEUs were handled in the 24 hours till 8:00am on July 22, much lower than the 8,000 to 9,000 TEUs handled on any regular working day.

In the same period, a total of 2,107 TEUs of containers were discharged from the vessels and 2,972 TEUs were loaded onto ships, according to the CPA data.

Some 415 TEUs of import-laden containers were transported from the port to inland container depots (ICDs) during this time, but not a single one could be delivered to the consignees, said CPA Secretary Md Omar Faruk.

The CPA is also trying to adopt manual documentations as a part of its efforts to keep the port running, he said.

Transport of import and export-laden containers between the port and the private ICDs, however, improved a bit on July 22 morning.

Four vessels departed from the port on July 22 and they took almost all of the containers for which bookings had been placed on them.

Far East Group, a Gazipur-based garment factory, imported three containers of cotton and chemicals from China and India which were unloaded from a ship on July 17.

The assessment and payment of duties against these consignments were completed by July 19 but they could not be delivered until on July 22, said Kamruzzaman Sagar, proprietor of ABS Corporation, the clearing and forwarding agent.

Because of the internet blackout, the three containers could neither be traced nor be run through a final verification by customs in the last three days, he said, adding that it was difficult to carry out these activities manually.