Rail-mounted gantry crane inoperative for 15 years

---

Egypt's president, Mohamed Morsi, third from right, and Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, fourth from right, attended a military graduation.

Jasim Uddin Haroon
The lone rail-mounted gantry crane of the Dhaka Inland Container Depot (DICD) remains inoperative for more than 15 years due to technical fault, affecting cargo movement of the premier ICD.
It is the country's first state-of-the-art crane, installed in 1996 to expedite cargo movement to and from Dhaka ICD. Chittagong port installed four rail-mounted gantry cranes in 2006.
Bangladesh Railway (BR), the state-run transport agency, procured the sophisticated gantry crane from Germany at a cost of Tk 20 million.
The BR officials said they could not operate the crane for a single day, as it had technical faults during procurement.
"We procured the gantry crane much earlier. But it has been remaining idle since installation," Md Akhtaruzzaman, additional director general (operation) of the BR, told the FE.
However, the railway officials refrained from elaborating the issue, and the BR is yet to form any enquiry committee to probe the matter.
A gantry crane can unload 30-35 containers per hour, while a traditional crane can unload 10-12 containers in the same time.
"Gantry crane saves time and it is much popular container handling equipment," said a port official.
Importers are suffering severely at the DICD to receive their goods mainly due to its old handling equipment.
Sheikh Md Farid, president of Dhaka Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association, told the FE: "Cargo delivery is very slow at the DICD. We get imported cargoes from the ICD 10-15 days later."
He said they had observed work abstention programmes many times due to the ICD's poor handling facility.
"The consignees would get their cargoes much earlier once the rail-mounted gantry crane goes into operation," he added.
The BR is jointly operating the DICD with the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) since its inception in 1989. The ICD handles around 8.0 per cent cargoes of Chittagong port. It handled nearly 70,000 containers during the last fiscal.