Introducing internal container barge services 'can cut transport cost by over 50pc'
Thursday, 24 December 2009
FE Report
The country's exporters and importers can cut transport cost by more than 50 per cent and save significant amount of time if internal container barge service is introduced between Chittagong and Dhaka and Bangladesh and India, experts said Monday.
The experts made the observations at a seminar on 'Containerised transportation of export-import cargo through inland waterways in the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Kolkata corridor' organised by Shipwrights Bangladesh Limited in the capital.
Probir Mitra, chairman of Capstan Shipping & Estates Limited, India, said, "Kolkata, Haldia, Dhaka and Chittagong - the whole area is integrated and provides ample opportunity in terms of cost benefit so macro level container management has to be looked at."
He said supply chain management has become a phenomenon after the onslaught of the global economic crisis.
"There will be huge comparative benefits on all fronts if the internal container barge services are introduced between Chittagong and Dhaka."
The Indian expert said the problem of lack of adequate infrastructure could be solved through public-private partnership on build-own-operate-transfer basis.
Mahbub Ahmed, managing director of Shipwrights, said absence of river-based infrastructures, the export-import sector of Bangladesh is deprived of the most economic and eco-friendly mode of inland transportation, directly affecting the viable pricing of goods.
Chittagong Port currently handles 1.15 million (11.50 lakh) twenty equivalent units (TEUs) annually and 80 per cent of these containers are Dhaka-bound. Only about 20 per cent of the Dhaka-bound containers move inland, railways picking up about 80,000 TEUs leaving the rest for the road transport.
Mahbub said the remaining 80 per cent are moved as break bulk cargo in overloaded, unsafe trucks exposed to higher cost, damages, pilferage and uncertainty in the delivery of shipped goods either way.
The country's inland water terminals have the potential to become a major actor in the transport of containers between Dhaka and Chittagong and between India and Bangladesh, Mr Mahbub said quoting a recent World Bank study.
Bangladesh can even raise its gross domestic product by 1 per cent and foreign trade by 20 per cent if the inland water transport logistic systems are made efficient and competitive, he said quoting another report of Asian Development Bank.
Mahbub said containers arriving at the country's premier seaport (Chittagong) would be brought by some 40 purpose-built inland container vessels through the riverine route to Narayanganj.
"It would trim inland container transportation cost by at least 60 per cent. It will be safer than road and rail routes," he said.
He said the river terminals could bring down the cut-off time for export shipment to three hours or less.
Mahbub said the construction of inland container terminal would be a boon for the domestic shipbuilding industry as about 42 vessels between 1,800-2,000 DWT each and 60 river barges would have to be built in the next six years for Dhaka ICT at Pangaon and the proposed Rupayan Port, owned by Rupayan Group.
Rupayan Group would build the country's largest private port cum inland container depot at Narayanganj from March next year at a cost of US$40 million.
The country's exporters and importers can cut transport cost by more than 50 per cent and save significant amount of time if internal container barge service is introduced between Chittagong and Dhaka and Bangladesh and India, experts said Monday.
The experts made the observations at a seminar on 'Containerised transportation of export-import cargo through inland waterways in the Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Kolkata corridor' organised by Shipwrights Bangladesh Limited in the capital.
Probir Mitra, chairman of Capstan Shipping & Estates Limited, India, said, "Kolkata, Haldia, Dhaka and Chittagong - the whole area is integrated and provides ample opportunity in terms of cost benefit so macro level container management has to be looked at."
He said supply chain management has become a phenomenon after the onslaught of the global economic crisis.
"There will be huge comparative benefits on all fronts if the internal container barge services are introduced between Chittagong and Dhaka."
The Indian expert said the problem of lack of adequate infrastructure could be solved through public-private partnership on build-own-operate-transfer basis.
Mahbub Ahmed, managing director of Shipwrights, said absence of river-based infrastructures, the export-import sector of Bangladesh is deprived of the most economic and eco-friendly mode of inland transportation, directly affecting the viable pricing of goods.
Chittagong Port currently handles 1.15 million (11.50 lakh) twenty equivalent units (TEUs) annually and 80 per cent of these containers are Dhaka-bound. Only about 20 per cent of the Dhaka-bound containers move inland, railways picking up about 80,000 TEUs leaving the rest for the road transport.
Mahbub said the remaining 80 per cent are moved as break bulk cargo in overloaded, unsafe trucks exposed to higher cost, damages, pilferage and uncertainty in the delivery of shipped goods either way.
The country's inland water terminals have the potential to become a major actor in the transport of containers between Dhaka and Chittagong and between India and Bangladesh, Mr Mahbub said quoting a recent World Bank study.
Bangladesh can even raise its gross domestic product by 1 per cent and foreign trade by 20 per cent if the inland water transport logistic systems are made efficient and competitive, he said quoting another report of Asian Development Bank.
Mahbub said containers arriving at the country's premier seaport (Chittagong) would be brought by some 40 purpose-built inland container vessels through the riverine route to Narayanganj.
"It would trim inland container transportation cost by at least 60 per cent. It will be safer than road and rail routes," he said.
He said the river terminals could bring down the cut-off time for export shipment to three hours or less.
Mahbub said the construction of inland container terminal would be a boon for the domestic shipbuilding industry as about 42 vessels between 1,800-2,000 DWT each and 60 river barges would have to be built in the next six years for Dhaka ICT at Pangaon and the proposed Rupayan Port, owned by Rupayan Group.
Rupayan Group would build the country's largest private port cum inland container depot at Narayanganj from March next year at a cost of US$40 million.