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HARTAL IMPACT

Import costs mount as transporters cash in on delivery rush at Ctg port

Dwaipayan Barua, ctg
Importers are rushing to receive their imports from Chittagong port, with the end of the 84-hour countrywide shutdown. But they are counting additional transport costs as vehicle owners charge almost double due to the rush.
The delivery of import goods from the port came down sharply since the latest round of hartals began on Sunday. After the shutdown that ended on Wednesday, the port saw a record rise.
When only 533 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) of import containers could be delivered from the port in the 24 hours to 8am Wednesday, the number rose to 3,514 TEUs in the same period ending yesterday, according to Chittagong Port Authority.
Around 23,000 TEUs of import containers remained at the port yards until yesterday afternoon, waiting to be delivered.
Clearing and forwarding agents spent much of the day on their cell phones, arranging vehicles to carry goods on behalf of the importers.
The C&F agents alleged that vehicle owners were charging Tk 38,000 to Tk 40,000 as truck fare on the Chittagong-Dhaka route, against the usual fare ofTk 15,000; covered vans forTk 45,000 against the usual of Tk 20,000; and container trailers for Tk 55,000 to Tk 60,000 againstTk 30,000.
Shihab Chowdhury Biplob, proprietor of Paramount Trade International, a C&F firm, said he received a delivery of 22 TEUs of import containers at an additional transport cost ofTk 5 lakh.
It also had to pay Tk 42,000 to the port authority as demurrage for overstaying as they could notarrange timely delivery for the shutdown, even though all the procedures for delivery were completed before the hartal.
Khurram Nayeem, another C&F agent who organised delivery of eight TEUs containers of goods brought in by two importers in Gazipur and Dhaka, said he hired 3 container trailers at Tk 55,000 each and 7 covered vans atTk 45,000 each o carry the goods.
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"I was losing my temper over the severe transport crisis," said Nayeem.
Many agents who were unwilling to pay the additional charges are looking to carry the goods by tomorrow, expecting transport costs to fall a bit.
Monir Ahmad, president of Inter District Truck and Covered Vans Owners' Association, said there were 3,000 such vehicles in Chittagong but demand rose to around 12,000 yesterday.
Many owners were charging higher fares to make up for the losses incurred during the hartals,