Freight train suspension deepens Ctg port’s container congestion

The freight train service suspension, which began on August 3, has created a container congestion at Chattogram port.

The port's dedicated space to store containers to be transported through freight trains now has 2,470 TEUs (Twenty-foot equivalent units) containers, which is nearly three times higher than its capacity of 876 TEUs.

The Chittagong Goods Port Yard is another designated spot for such containers, which normally releases around 200 TEUs from Chattogram port to the Kamalapur Inland Container Depots every day.

Bangladesh Railway suspended freight train services amid students' countrywide government job quota movement on August 3 for security concerns and since then no container was transported through trains.

As of today, six trains with around 150 TEUs containers each got stuck at the yard.

The state agency primarily transports raw materials, marble and stone, food grain, fertiliser through freight train.

"The situation is out of control and not a single container can be stored at the port yard now," said Abdul Malek, master of the Chittagong Goods Port Yard.

Meanwhile, the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has sent a letter to Bangladesh Railway seeking quick resumption of the freight train services.

Businesses prefer freight trains to transport raw materials, which cost much less than the other ways of transportation, importers said.

A maximum of Tk 16,100 is needed to ship 20 TEUs of containers on the Dhaka-Chattogram route by freight train, compared to up to Tk 26,000 when using roadways.

Imran Jahid, a businessman from Dhaka's Keraniganj area, said he is yet to get four TEUs of containers of imported steel raw materials, which reached Chattogram port on July 15.

"I had to stop production in my steel factory due to the shortage of raw materials," he said.

Saiful Islam, divisional railway manager of Chattogram, said: "We will resume freight train services as soon as the authorities concerned give us go-ahead."

Meanwhile, Akbor Hossain, commissioner of the custom house of the Kamalapur ICD, said there is no congestion in his depot, as no imported goods-carrier train reached the ICD since the suspension.