Chittagong port is ready to handle the additional containers to be transported through the port if transit facility is introduced, said the newly appointed Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Chairman Commodore M Anwarul Islam yesterday. With the introduction of transit, two million tonnes of goods would possibly be transported through Chittagong and Mongla ports in a year in containers of around 1.87 lakh TEUS (twenty-foot equivalent units), Islam said.
The country's premier port with its existing logistics can handle all those containers as it handled 1.3 million TEUs of containers last year, he said adding that the number of containers transported through the port has increased by over 40 percent in the last five years.
The CPA chairman was speaking at a press meet on the occasion of his charge takeover in the CPA boardroom yesterday. He briefed on the management and development projects of the port at the meeting. He said related infrastructural development, including road and rail transportation facilities outside the port is required for the transit. Islam hoped the government's vision of turning Chittagong port into a regional hub is quite possible with the completion of outside infrastructures and immediate implementation of the on-going development projects at the port.
He said the government has taken short-, mid- and long-term projects to develop the port.
With the completion of the back-up facilities of Newmooring Container Terminal by June next year, Chittagong port will be able to handle two more million TEUs of containers annually.
He said the computerised tracking and management system would be introduced soon to handle containers more smoothly. On addressing workers' problems, he said the wages of the port labourers have already been increased and other problems will be addressed soon.