Chittagong port authority blamed for congestion

The parliamentary standing committee of the shipping ministry has blamed the Chittagong Port Authority for mismanagement and poor service at the port, reported The Financial Express (Bangladesh).

Chairman and whip Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury Liton after a meeting of the committee said the CPA cannot operate and handle the situation prevailing at the port.

His comments came after the business leaders at Chittagong blamed the standing committee for interfering with the operations at the port where cargo handling has drastically come down.

The committee chairman said they recommended the formation of an advisory council to operate the port efficiently. A meeting at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) last month decided to form the advisory council.

"It should comprise stakeholders, the government and the port authority where everybody can sit together and solve the problems," he said.

He refuted the claim that the standing committee put forward any recommendations relating to appointment of berth operators at the port.

"Cabinet committee on purchase will take the final decision on appointing the berth operators and if it disapproves the current tender, then there will be re-tender and it will take more time to appoint them," Liton said.

The CPA has already floated tender thrice to appoint the berth operators to handle containers but to no effect.

Chittagong port users at a roundtable meeting on Saturday blamed the standing committee for making the port one of the most congested in the world as it has created obstruction to appoint private operators in the last five months for which the cargo handling has drastically fallen and the stay time of vessels in the port has increased from 2/3 days to 5/6 days.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)