First Indian ship carrying trans-shipment goods reaches Chittagong port

Indian vessel “MV Shejyoti” carrying four containers of trans-shipment goods arrived at the outer anchorage of Chittagong port at 1am on Tuesday.

Md Omar Faruk, the secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune, and said: “The Indian vessel is likely to take berth at the No 1 jetty of New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) around 12:30pm Tuesday.”

“The vessel will take berth at the jetty on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis of the existing berthing policy of the port. Port dues, pilotage and other fees will be realized as per the port’s tariff schedule.”

He added: “Chittagong port will definitely benefit from the trans-shipment through tariffs. More importantly, the whole country will reap benefits from this move.”  

Four containers carrying iron and pulse will be shipped to Tripura and Assam of India through the Akhaura-Agartala land port.

The rest of the 217 containers carried by MV Shejyoti are of Bangladeshi importers, according to CPA Secretary Omar Faruk.

Welcoming the trans-shipment, the businesses of the port city underscored the need for enhancing jetty facilities of the maritime port to cope with the increased container throughput.

Omar on Tuesday said: “With the construction of newer container terminals, our container handling capacity will be enhanced to a great extent and we will be able to ensure smooth operations of the seaport. With the enhanced container handling capacity, our ranking in the world will go up further.”

In 2015, Dhaka and Delhi had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to allow Indian cargo ships to carry goods to and from the north-eastern parts of India to its other regions through Bangladesh by using the Chittagong and Mongla ports.

The two countries signed the Standard Operating Procedure in October 2018, to fix the modality of the trans-shipment of goods through the routes.

The routes suggested for this trans-shipment include, among others: from Chittagong port, or Mongla port to Agartala via Akhaura; from Chittagong or Mongla port to Dawki via Tamabil; from Chittagong or Mongla port to Sutarkandi via Sheola; and from Chittagong or Mongla to Bibekbazar via Simantapur.