Power cuts affects Benapole port

Benapole land port at Sarsa in Jessore district is struggling to function amid severe power cuts with availability not exceeding six to eight hours a day. The power crisis is disrupting export and import operations between Bangladesh and India through the country’s largest land port. Since its functions are mostly computerised, work stalls during load-shedding, resulting in a processing backlog. The Benapole port is crucial to the country’s economy with 90% of goods from India coming through it. Assistant Commissioner of Benapole Customs House Sadhan Kumar Kundu said “Since loading and unloading of goods at Benapole port involve computerised processes, it’s impossible to function without uninterrupted power supply.” He said generators had been pressed into service to cope with the crisis but it was now proving difficult to run them continually over long stretches. The customs official claimed several of the expensive printers had developed faults because of erratic power supply. “At times, important information and files are lost because of the server damage.” Moshiar Rahman, Legal Affairs Secretary of the Benapole Customs Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association, said that some 1.4 million metric tonnes of goods are exported and imported through the port annually, while the government earns about Tk 25 billion in revenues from the port. “However, uninterrupted power supply hasn’t yet been ensured,” he said, according to bdnews24.com.