Chittagong port. File Photo
In the last few years, the status of Chittagong port, one of
the regulators of the country's economy, has improved tremendously. There is no
traditional labor strike. The average dwell time of foreign vessels has
decreased. The cost of the port has decreased and the income has increased. The
capacity of the port has increased by several times due to the introduction of
various state-of-the-art equipment for container unloading including automatic
container detection. Those concerned say that the situation has improved as
container handling work at Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT), Newmooring
Container Terminal (NCT), Pangaon Container Terminal and General Cargo Berth
(GCB) of Chittagong port has been left to the private sector.
Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority, Rear Admiral Mr. Md. Shahjahan also
admitted that there is no problem in Chittagong port due to taking new projects
to improve the situation and employing the private sector in container handling
work. He said that many yards of Chittagong port are now empty due to the quick
delivery of containers. According to Chittagong Port sources, CCT, NCT, Pangaon
Container Terminal and GCB together handled 60 percent of the total container
handling last year by the private sector Saif Powertech Limited. The remaining
six institutions made 40 percent. In 2021, out of 28 lakh 83 thousand 154 TEUs
(twenty equivalent units) handling, Saif Powertech alone has done 17 lakh 40
thousand 964 TEUs. Other institutions have done 11 lakh 42 thousand 190 TEUs.
According to the sources, the port has saved hundreds of crores of rupees besides increasing the productivity even though the terminal is managed by a private operator. In this regard, the top entrepreneur of the private sector involved in terminal operations said, 'Creating the milestone of Chittagong port container handling was not very easy in the beginning. The Ministry of Shipping, port officials, workers and port users have been working hard to increase productivity and increase capacity through modern machinery. Chittagong port has become an efficient port as a result of some positive and bold decisions of the authorities. The port chairman said in this regard that the occupied area of the port has been recovered and a yard has been built there. At one time, a total of 49 thousand 18 TEU containers could be stored in the port. Now it has a capacity of 53 thousand 518 TEU containers. He said, currently there are 34 thousand 226 TEU containers in the port. He said that there is no strike as the workers are now under the control of private companies.
Businessmen said that before 2007, Chittagong Port was
continuously ineffective due to various reasons including manual system,
involvement of multiple organizations, bribery and corruption, occasional
strikes of labor unions, inefficient operators. Traders used to suffer various
types of harassment with the connivance of machine directors and related parties.
As a result, the importers could not redeem the goods at the specified time.
This would affect the market. On the other hand, industry did not get raw
materials on time, exports were disrupted.
Traders also said that before 2007 the average stay of the
ship was 10 to 12 days. In addition to additional charges for ship owners,
there is a negative impact on the outside world. In this situation, since the
private management of CCT and NCT, the average position of the ship has
decreased by three days. Due to this, the cost of the ship owners has decreased
and the number of ships arriving at the port has also increased. Port costs
have also come down. Before 2007, the port cost per container was 2500; The
same work is being done after 2007 for 1 thousand 200 taka. Chittagong Chamber
President Mahbubul Alam said that the situation of the port is now much better
than before. There is no container jam because there is no labor strike.
However, the number of jetties here should be increased for proper operation of
the port. Arrangements should be made for the Bay-Terminal to go into operation
as soon as possible. He said that the situation has improved considerably as
the work of container handling has gone to the private sector.
According to business leaders, even a century ago, importers
would have to spend time, extra money and suffer harassment to find a container
after it was unloaded from a ship at the port. Because of this, the container
was jammed. Then the average stay of the container was 25 to 26 days. An
organized gang used to extort 4 to 5 thousand rupees from each container yard
to place it at the delivery point. Besides, before 2007 there was no discipline
in container clearance. As a result, the importer had to pay an additional duty
of 150 to 200 dollars per container. After 2007 that picture changed. In the
beginning, the position of the container was detected in a few minutes by
automatic digital method through mobile SMS. Later CTMS was introduced.
Discipline is restored by introducing new and modern methods of delivery.
Earlier CCT gantry cranes (QGC) were managed by the port's
own management yard and operators. Operational work on and below the ship was
carried out by stevedore workers and dock workers. Transport from the ship's
hook point to the container yard was done by private trailer contractors. At
that time, it cost 2 thousand 500 taka to unload a container or take it on a
ship. After 2007, without the involvement of port officials and employees, the
cost came down to Tk 1,200. Productivity increases. Where earlier 10 to 12
containers per hour were being handled by gantry cranes, it increased to 25 to
30 containers after private companies took over.
Meanwhile, in 2015, the port authority took the initiative
to open five jetties of NCT. Among them, Saif Powertech got the work of
Terminal No. 2 and 3. Terminals 4 and 5 are given to joint ventures. In 8
months of 2007 (May-December) 97 vessels handled 92 thousand 687 TEUs here. 11
lakh 49 thousand 675 TEUs were handled there in 2021.
It is known that due to the increase in productivity in NCT,
Chittagong Port came to the 58th position in the list of 100 container ports in
London-based international shipping journal Lloyd's survey in 2020. Tarfdar
Ruhul Amin, managing director of Saif Powertech, said that in the beginning, we
managed the terminal by bringing experts from modern ports in the developed
world. We are the only ISO certified company. Capacity increased step by step
over 15 years. As a result of various initiatives, it has risen to the 64th
place in the list of 100 busiest ports in the world. Earlier this position was
67th.
|Source: Online/SZK
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