No export thru’ Pangaon ICT yet

No export has so far been made through the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal (ICT), as the time factor offsets different facilities offered to the port users to interest them.
Officials said during the last seven months since its inauguration, 236 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) of loaded containers and 172 TEUs of empty containers were brought to the Pangaon ICT from the Chittagong port.
However, they said no export cargo was carried to the seaport from the Pangaon ICT during the period, as exporters appeared to have given a lukewarm response to the facilities offered.
The ministry of shipping (MoS) this week has asked the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and the administrator of the terminal to explain what steps have been taken so far to make the newly-built infrastructure operational.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the terminal on November 7, 2013. The terminal was built with the aim to reduce congestions at the Chittagong seaport and pressure of vehicles on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.      
A senior MoS official told the FE that the government had taken different steps to encourage exporters and importers to use the ICT. But they were showing reluctance to use the terminal.
He said the 25 per cent incentives, in the form of reduced freight, had been offered to users of the terminal so that they felt encouraged to use it.
The official also said land had been offered for offices of customs agents' association in the ICT area so that shipping agents and freight forwarders could carry out activities on the terminal premises facilitating handling of export and import containers.    
Besides, necessary security arrangement has been ensured in the terminal area as well as for the vessels which will carry export and import commodities to and from the Pangaon ICT.
Importers and exporters cite various complications as reasons for not using the terminal despite the fact that carrying container through river route is much cheaper than by road.
Some traders said they were less interested to use the terminal as carrying goods to and from Chittagong port to the ICT was taking much longer time than by road.
A container-laden vessel to and from Chittagong needs 1.5 days to reach the ICT while it takes only eight hours for a truck to reach the prime seaport from Dhaka.
They say high-speed vessels have to be brought for the ICT to reduce the time required for carrying containers. Besides, they say, the number of vessels has to be increased so that containers can reach Chittagong port timely and load up feeder vessels that carry goods to mother vessels.
Vice-President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Shahidullah Azim told the FE earlier that still there were some procedural complications which were making the exporters turn their back on the terminal.
"If you want to use the ICT, you will have to carry goods from factory to Pangaon, then stockpile those in godowns, then again load up the vessels and unload those at Chittagong port. Then you will have to load up feeder vessels that carry the goods to mother vessels. The whole process will cause a long delay," he said.
Mr Azim said the exporters were still preferring road communications, as it is comparatively faster than river trips. Making Pangaon operational with adequate cargoes would take some more time, he added.