DWAIPAYAN BARUA, Ctg

Shinest Apparels, a Dhaka-based garment factory, sent eight truckloads of export cargo to a private inland container depot (ICD) in Chattogram eight days ago for shipment through the country’s premier port.

Two of those trucks were still waiting to enter yesterday due to a long queue of such trucks and covered vans outside the ICD.

At least 20 trucks and covered vans carrying export goods from the same garment factory have been similarly stranded before different ICDs for the last couple of days.

There are long queues of trucks and covered vans outside many of the 19 ICDs in the port city and its outskirt in Sitakunda.

The ICDs have been facing an acute congestion of export containers within their premises for a few weeks now.

Exporters are already suffering from a crisis of vehicles and exorbitantly high truck fares due to the stalemate.

They apprehend missing shipments of many export consignments if their cargoes cannot be unloaded from the trucks, stuffed into containers and sent to the port for loading onto ships.

Truck owners are charging double or triple the usual fares taking advantage of the situation, they said.

Informing of the crisis, Sajib Hossen, shipping in-charge of Shinest Apparels, said they had to hire trucks at Tk 60,000 to Tk 65,000 for sending their cargoes from Dhaka to the ICDs.

The fare is usually around Tk 15,000 to Tk 20,000, he said.

PHOTO: COLLECTED