Easing congestion at Chittagong port

Bangladesh's main seaport and gateway to international trade, the Chittagong Port, has no dearth of barriers to overcome and deliver up to its full capacity. Ironically, it is the main users of the port facilities who in most cases, get in the way. So, one is hardly surprised when the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), the body that manages, maintains and looks after the governance and operation of the seaport, had to issue a notice threatening its main users with penal rent to be charged unless they promptly clear port yards.  Notably, of late, the port's normal operation is being severely hampered as the volume of empty containers has surpassed its capacity many times over. In consequence, it is causing delay in key operations like delivery of the imported FCL (full container load) goods as well as stacking and storing of freshly unloaded containers. Since repeated warnings have fallen on deaf ears, the CPA has been constrained to declare in a notification August 7 as the cutoff date to clean up the yard following which, it warned, the section 160 of Regulations for Working of Chittagong Port (Cargo and Container) 2001, would come into force. Meanwhile, as notified, the port authority would monitor progress, if any, of the cleanup work.

There is no question that the port authority, if it is to continue serving its users, has to take, if necessary, harsh measures to keep the port's container storage space clean and in order. One would like to believe that the CPA's deadline would be met by the port users sine it is they who would ultimately suffer if the clogged up yards bring the port's normal activities to a standstill to the detriment of the country's entire external trade. It's indeed unfortunate that a humongous pile of empty containers was lying on the port's storage yard putting huge obstacles in the way of its normal functioning. It is worth noting that the Chittagong Port has a combined container storage capacity of 53, 518 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in its several storage yards. That means already large portion of the port's entire container storage capacity has been adversely occupied by the empty boxes yet to be shifted to the off-docks. So, one would earnestly like to hope that the CPA's cleaning up deadline as notified would not go unheeded by its stakeholders. Currently, the storage rent for empty containers stands at USD6 per TEU per day for the first seven days and jumps to USD12 per TEU from the 8th to 20th day of container yard usage and USD24 per TEU per day thereafter. In that case, if any action is taken by CPA after the passage of the deadline, it should be justified and any clamouring  from any user feeling aggrieved at  it should not stand to reason.  

Since last March, the CPA has been imposing four times the usual store rent on cargo containers so that the congestion of the cargo storage space could be eased.  But no visible move has been made so far by the stakeholders concerned to keep the port's container storage space free from empty containers. In the final analysis, in an arrangement where cooperation between the provider and recipient of service should be the basis of work ethic, resorting to any executive or legal action is the last option.

So, it is in the interest of all the parties, the port users and the CPA, that they would come together and agree towards further enhancing the country's premier port's service giving potential.