Dwaipayan Barua

The Chattogram Customs House has yet to start making an inventory of the consignments seized at the port on July 23 on charge of containing large quantities of foreign liquor.

Private inland container depots (ICDs) are set to increase their charges for handling consignments by 20-25 percent from tomorrow, in a development that will raise the cost for importers and exporters by more than Tk 100 crore annually.

Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) yesterday started evicting illegal structures at Laldia Char at the estuary of Karnaphuli river at Patenga after years of repeated attempts.

Debt-ridden Mostafa Group wants to pay back Tk 1,500 crore loans with around three dozen lenders taking advantage of the central bank’s rescheduling facility, as it looks to make a comeback.

The Chittagong Port Authority purchased the cranes from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company at a cost of Tk 238.63 crore for New Mooring Container Terminal

After being afloat for four days in the Bay, a Bangladeshi cargo vessel rescued an Indian fisherman on Wednesday.

Rough seas and incessant rain have kept suspended the unloading of imported bulk cargo from vessels at the outer anchorage of the Chattogram port and Kutubdia anchorage for the last four days.

Though the country’s premier sea port managed to get rid of years-long container and vessel congestion at the end of last year, following inclusion of a number of required equipment and some supervisory steps, such congestion has resurfaced at Chattogram port.

Import-laden containers are piling up at Chattogram port mainly due to slow delivery as operations of factories and vehicular movement are yet to return to normalcy following the Eid vacation.

Onion prices have gone up in the kitchen markets in the port city after wholesalers jacked up prices in Khatunganj allegedly for a supply shortage.

Freight train services on the Dhaka-Chattogram route have fallen way below acceptable standards, to the extent that it recently took one importer over one month to get two goods-laden containers delivered from the port city to the capital.

Ramadan commodities have seen a retail price increase in Chattogram this year although their wholesale rates remained a bit lower compared to those in the previous year.

Owners of private inland container depots (ICDs) have stuck to their decision to increase operational charges from April 1 though the shipping ministry has directed them to postpone the move.

Congestion at Chattogram port has started easing thanks to the inclusion of new equipment for container handling, delivery of import containers from a place outside the port and strong monitoring, port users said.

Wholesale prices of Indian onion saw a downward trend at the Khatunganj wholesale hub here in the last couple of days thanks to plentiful imports from the neighbouring country.

The Chittagong port posted 9 percent year-on-year growth in container handling in 2018.

The arson attack on Hindu houses in Banshkahli's Muhuripara area nearly six years ago still haunts the villagers.

Turnaround time at the Chattogram port has sharply increased because of a recent two-day countrywide transport strike, leading to vessel congestion and cancellation of berthing schedules.

Top denim maker Pacific Jeans is spending $100 million to set up two new factories in Chattogram in two years with the view to diversifying product base.

Customers are yet to reap the benefit of the record fall in the price of lentil in the wholesale hub of Khatunganj in Chattogram as retailers are yet to set their prices to reflect the decreased costs.