Port users are apprehensive of acute congestion as the volume of goods handed over to consignees each day may not rise until most factories and related offices reopen on Sunday. Photo: Star/file

Containers packed with imports are starting to pile up at the Chattogram port due to a drastic drop in the delivery of goods, as factories and vehicles are yet to resume running in full swing amidst the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.

Port users are apprehensive of acute congestion as the volume of goods handed over to consignees each day may not rise until most factories and related offices reopen on Sunday.

The volume of daily deliveries and transfers of import containers started to fall on the day prior to Eid, which was on June 7.

On June 6, the port saw the clearance of only 521 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of import containers, which were either transferred to different private inland container depots (ICDs) or had their goods handed over to the recipients.

On an average day, the port usually witnesses the delivery of around 4,500 TEUs.

Though the country's premier seaport has remained open during these Eid holidays, except for several hours on Eid day, the expected benefits in container deliveries did not materialise.

Not a single container was delivered on Eid day. And on the following days, the deliveries did not pick up.

Only 437 TEUs of import containers were delivered and transferred in the 24 hours since the morning of June 8. It was 1,381 TEUs and 1,787 TEUs on June 9 and June 10, respectively.

Meanwhile, a long queue of incoming container vessels had formed at the outer anchorage of the port following Eid day. The scenario has improved remarkably in the last two days.

On Monday, the number of vessels waiting to berth reached 20. The figure, however, dropped to nine yesterday.

Berth operators said vessels' stay time at jetties increased by a day due to the low number of container deliveries and transfers since June 6.

Officials of the firm running New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) said they tried to get the vessels to depart within 48 hours in the last few days, and it helped reduce the number of vessels waiting for berth.

Most vessels, however, had to wait anywhere from three to six days to get berths.

Sol Resilience, a vessel carrying 1,099 TEUs of import containers and arriving at the outer anchorage from Colombo on June 4, got berth yesterday after waiting for six days.

Nazmul Hoque, executive director of Saif Powertec Ltd, the operator of NCT, said the port actually started to face an acute container backlog since mid-May.

This was due to a daylong strike observed by prime mover drivers and a weeklong pen-down programme afterwards by customs officials, he said.

Before those container backlogs could be fully addressed, the weeklong Eid holidays began, he said.

Port data show that a total of 40,661 TEUs of containers were lying at the port yards till yesterday, occupying around 76 percent of the space available.

The port has a capacity to store up to 53,518 TEUs of containers.

Khairul Alam Suzan, a top official of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, said daily deliveries were yet to gain momentum as most factories and related offices like banks were still closed.

He feared that the situation may deteriorate in the next few days, since most of the factories and offices would remain shut till June 14.