Bangladesh News

The dockworkers loyal to Chittagong City Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury have kept the vital container yard of the Chittagong Port besieged for over a week demanding cancellation of the agreement signed with a private company on the gantry crane operations.
On the other hand, the private company — Saif Powertec Limited — yesterday served a notice against the port authority demanding Tk 10 lakh compensation per day for not allowing them to operate, sources said.

Although the port resumed operation after postponement of political agitation on Wednesday, the dock workers have halted the operation of the four vital cranes at the container terminal.

Consequently, the operation at the premier port is yet to start in full swing.

All of the three berths and four gantry cranes at the Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT) have remained idle since November 12, sources said.

Besides, two large vessels anchored at the terminal are incurring loss of $15,000 each per day due to non-operation of the cranes.

Saif Powertec Limited that had been awarded the task of operating the gantry cranes served a notice against the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) yesterday demanding compensation of Tk 10 lakh per day for losses due to suspension of operation of the vital equipment.

Giving 24 hours time to restore operation of the cranes, the company threatened of legal actions against the CPA.

“You are requested to restore the operation of four QGC (Quay Gantry Cranes) at CCT jetty ensuring securities within 24 hours from receipt of this notice. Otherwise, we will be compelled to take the shelter of law,” said the notice addressing the CPA chairman.

“We demanded the compensation to the CPA as per our agreement,” said Tarofdar Mohammad Ruhul Amin, managing director of Saif Powertec Limited. He said the CPA would have to give compensation as the operation remained stopped since November 14 without any valid reason.

“We can not operate the cranes as the port workers are not allowing gang booking against the container terminals for loading and unloading cargo from the container ships,” Ruhul Amin told The Daily Star yesterday.

Mayor Mohiuddin’s men did not allow the handling of containers by Quay Gantry Crane even after postponement of rail, road and port blockade programme by the 14-party alliance on Tuesday, said a source.

The mayor, who wants running the cranes with port workers, reportedly asked his followers not to allow operation of the cranes until and unless the agreement with the company is cancelled.

The job of crane handling was awarded to the private company in June this year as the performance of the port workers was very poor. The private company handled 25-30 TEUs per hour against only 10-12 by the port operators.

The practice of bribery has also stopped after the private company took the charge of container handling.

The port authorities discussed with the mayor several times but failed to get his consent for resuming the operation while a section of port officials are working in favour of the mayor.

The Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association called on the newly appointed CPA Chairman Mosleh Uddin Ahmed yesterday afternoon and urged him to take steps for immediate resumption of the gantry cranes operation.

They said the operation of gantry cranes should be urgently resumed for clearing the congestion and accelerating the port activities. The port is overburdened with huge stockpiled containers and long queue of the ships waiting at the outer anchorage for getting permission to berth.

“This type of negative attitude by the mayor is very unfortunate when dozens of ships are waiting at the outer anchorage for discharging essential raw materials for manufacturing export items,” said a high official of the Chittagong Port Authority.

The mayor even ignored the request from the high-ups of his party Awami League to resume the handling by the gantry crane, sources said, adding that Mohiuddin left Chittagong for Bangkok on Friday night without resolving the crisis.