Despite repeated appeals by the government, the country's businessmen are reluctant to use the Pangaon Container Terminal built at South Keraniganj of Dhaka district. As such, the terminal could not be made fully functional since its inauguration by the Prime Minister over six months in November last year.
The businessmen argue that using the Pangaon terminal is not viable for them as unloading containers at the terminal is not cost-effective and the importers still need to hire trailers or covered vans to take the containers to factories. Besides, there are other complexities like double port charges.
Operation of the terminal has remained almost suspended as only a few containers were unloaded at the terminal on the river Buriganga since its inauguration. Not only investment on the terminal, but also another project-water bus service-under the same ministry turned out to be a loss-making venture.
According to reports, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) is incurring loss of around Tk 20,000 daily to operate six water buses between Sadarghat and Gabtoli. Such projects taken up without feasibility studies caused wastage of public funds, say analysts. However, many others say the newly-built container terminal is capable of diverting sizeable export and import cargoes from road routes to waterways, that too at a reduced cost.
The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) jointly built the Pangaon terminal at a cost of Tk 1.77 billion to ease the pressure of cargo movement on the Dhaka-Chittagong railway and highway corridors. The CPA, which installed container-handling equipment with additional investment, had viewed that around 180 miles waterways between Dhaka-Chittagong would be more favourable road and railways for transportation of containers.
On its part, the Pangaon terminal authority was reportedly trying to convince the businessmen to use the terminal. According to the authority, many businessmen had shown interest in using it. Besides, the shipping minister held a number of meetings with the stakeholders also and urged them to help continue the operation of Pangaon Inland Container Terminal. He said the government would provide facilities to the port users for making the Pangaon terminal operational.
However, the shipping ministry sources say they planned to provide benefits for the users of the terminal in a bid to prevent it from becoming a 'white elephant'. They said they would hold meetings with the ready-made garments exporters to finalise the extent of benefits next month. The terminal has a storage capacity of 3,500 twenty equivalent units of containers and handle 116,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) containers annually. The capacity might be raised to 160,000 TEUs annually.
Meantime, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has recently formed a marketing team in an attempt to make the Pangaon terminal in Dhaka operational. The eight-member team comprises representatives from the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Shippers' Council, Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association, Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Dhaka Customs Agents Association.
Port users, however, said the latest move by the authorities is unlikely to bring any meaningful outcome, saying consignees will use the terminal if they consider the terminal suitable for them. They allege that the CPA kept the main line operators, which conduct around 70 per cent of container business with Bangladesh, out of the committee.
However, the marketing team members are expected to keep regular contacts with the companies involved in export and import trade as well as main line operators to ensure maximum utilisation of the terminal. The team will also take steps to motivate the business firms to help make the terminal functional. The team will make recommendations to the CPA after collecting opinions of the consignees and the concerned people.
Currently, almost cent per cent consignees use the Chittagong port as the destination point. Only a small number of consignees, mainly the importers of electronics and foods in Dhaka, use the Kamalapur Inland Container Depot as point of destination.
Due to the delay in building ships, the CPA had procured three vessels from abroad to ply on the route. The local shipbuilding firms are likely to complete building the vessels sometime in March in 2015 as they received clear-cut guidelines on their construction.
Very recently, the Department of Shipping (DoS) instructed the country's shipbuilding firms to construct the vessels meant for the Chittagong-Pangaon route under the supervision of the classification societies. The latest decision has solved complexities with regard to building of the ships.
If the main line operators get vessels built under the supervision of the classification societies, it is expected that the businessmen will not hesitate to use the Pangaon terminal any more. The cost of building the vessels will range between Tk 240 million and Tk 250 million.
There is no denying that the Pangaon container terminal has immense potential to emerge as a viable means to reducing the burden on rail and road in carrying export and import merchandise to, and from, Chittagong.
Besides providing the choice for both inbound and outbound merchandise, the river route is considered suitable because of its being cost-effective compared with road. A 20-foot container reportedly costs $150 or Tk 11,500 which is much lower than the current transportation cost by road.
Since there is apparent lack of interest among exporters and importers to use the Pangaon Container Terminal, the relevant authorities should identify the reasons behind it and try to address those. Procedural complications should not stand in the way of making the terminal fully functional.
szkhan@dhaka.net
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