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          The Chittagong port has again gone through a period of turmoil recently. Workers' strike and unprecedented congestion hit the maritime port activities. This time, a huge number of container-carrying vessels in the country's main seaport created a jam resulting in considerable losses to the business people and hampering overseas trade.
The port activities came to an abrupt halt last week due to indefinite strike enforced by two main water transport bodies and one of their allied bodies. The striking organisations alleged that they had to go for strike mainly to get 24 cargo vessels that were lying stranded over the last eight months. As the Chittagong Customs House (CCH) and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) were at loggerheads, these stuck-up vessels could not be cleared.
The strike that was called off two days after its enforcement has worsened the congestion of the port to a considerable extent. The mother vessels that had to suspend operations due to strike will now have to make an additional payments of $280,000 to the CPA a day, apart from other losses incurred by the exporters and importers. The loading and unloading activities to and from the port came to a grinding halt. Other reports say the port officials are now denying entry of many foreign vessels scheduled to berth at the jetties due to severe congestion during the past few days. Many others were waiting at the outer anchorage for long. The port activities at the operational level had been somewhat reduced due to the holy month of Ramadan, resulting in slow loading and unloading. This has, in turn, triggered congestions at the jetty points. The latest report said at least 16 vessels are stranded at different jetties. Big vessels loaded with fertiliser consignments and installation of gantry cranes at two berths have also been contributing to the reduction of the handling capacity of the port to a great extent.
Congestion of ships and containers at the Chittagong port in the event of hartals and blockades is quite frequent. Poor quality equipment and lack of plans are retarding the growth of the port city. Delays in shipment procedure is a perennial problem that the readymade garment (RMG) exporters face everyday.
The Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) has termed the Chittagong port as the most expensive and second most risky port in the world. It is due to the fact that massive corruption in the port has been seriously affecting the country's foreign trade, impacting adversely its overall economic development since long.
However, the chairman of the Chittagong port claimed that the delivery processes of export-import cargoes had shown some significant improvements following the establishment of 'one-stop service centre' and the turned-around time of the vessels had been brought down to three to four days from the previous six to seven days.
Yet indeed, all pervasive corruption has hit the port city so much that foreign feeder vessel operators are now trying to ignore the Chittagong port. Imagine that nearly 30 forms have to be filled up for entering the port whereas only seven forms are required to be filled up in the case of Malaysian port of Penung. Port authorities claimed that the number of forms have been reduced.
Experts say the shipping ministry's role to rejuvenate the port activities is too limited. There should be a 'port trust' to make the port 'trustworthy'. There is no fair trade unionism. Stevedores and labourers are going for frequent wildcat strikes in support of their demands. In the face of stiff resistance from the port employees and political influence, the private container terminal could not be constructed as yet. Surprisingly during the past few years, the CPA has not taken prompt and realistic steps for building up the new container terminal to cater to the present-day needs in the context of increasing growth of container traffic. However, a number of private off-docks have come up to cater for a very substantial part of storage of empty containers and stuffing of export containers.
Everybody knows Chittagong has the potential to be an entry port to the region -- a potential small scale Singapore-like port -- for the region covering Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and eight north-east Indian states. The resource-rich northern Myanmar, a land locked region, is also eager to use the Chittagong port.
There have been some incidents of pirates' attacking vessels at the outer anchorage, pilferage of cargo while in port custody, and at times even physical attacks on the foreign sailors inside the port premises. All these erode the image of the Chittagong Port in the eyes of the foreign ship owners. Ultimate result is their reluctance to call on the Chittagong Port or addition of a risk premium to freight/charges, especially in the case of break bulk vessels or charter hire.
Experts put forward some suggestions for raising the overall capacity of the country's main seaport by expediting works under its modernisation programme. They also called for constituting a 'maritime council' on an urgent basis to bring all the stakeholders in the port and shipping sector under strict regulations and help widen the scope for private entrepreneurs in port operation under the concept of private-public partnership in order to get maximum benefits from the services being provided at the Chittagong port.
International trade is driven on business and commercial considerations where time and cost are key factors. But much to the detriment of the country's trade and economy, the government has failed to build, develop and equip the port facilities to meet the challenging requirements of the foreign trade due to red-tape, indecision and lack of farsightedness. What is required at the moment is the right vision, pro-business action plan and effective and timely implementation of the same.
Privatisation of port services is another priority that deserves active consideration of the government. Until that happens, the CPA should be given more freedom to run its affairs independently and efficiently within the policy framework to be given by the ministry concerned.