Container backlogs persist at Chittagong Port, the nation’s principal commerce gateway, while disruptions in rail transport impede the flow of imported products and oil to Dhaka and other regions of the nation.

Furthermore, traders and shipping brokers claim that export containers from Dhaka were unable to be moved by train to the port, resulting in financial losses for both importers and exporters.

According to sources at Chittagong Goods Port Yard, about 3 per cent of the port’s containers are rail-transported to the government-run Kamalapur inland container depot (ICD) in Dhaka. Fuel oil is also rail-distributed nationwide.

However, rail transport of goods from the port was halted on 18 July due to the ongoing quota reform protest, clashes and curfew.

According to shipping brokers, C&F agents, and officials at Chittagong Port, the yard can hold 825 Twenty-foot equivalent (TEU) containers that are travelling by train to Dhaka ICD.
Due to halted rail services, 1,596 TEU of import containers intended for Kamalapur ICD are stuck at Chittagong Port between 19th and 30th July.

Furthermore, it was not possible to transfer at least 500 TEU of export cargo containers from Dhaka ICD to Chittagong Port.

“While cargo transport by train resumed on 1st August, it remains limited, and train movement is still being disrupted at many points towards the capital,” said Abdul Malek, chief yard master of Chittagong Goods Port Yard.

“On 1st August, container trains, stranded in different areas, were able to reach Dhaka ICD. A container train departed from the yard on 2nd August, but goods transportation is far from reaching normalcy.”

Chittagong Goods Port Yard states that three oil trains and four container trains typically proceed to Dhaka Cantonment, Sylhet, Sreemangal, and Rangpur from the yard. But because of the turmoil, all rail services were suspended.

According to port data, 100 TEU of import containers were railroaded from Chittagong Port to Dhaka ICD on 2nd August. In addition, some thirty export containers from Dhaka landed at the port.

During FY ’24, Chittagong Port transported about 88,507 TEU of containers, or 243 containers per day, to Kamalapur ICD.