Container train
dhakadailyphoto.blogspot.com
The number of import-laden containers to Dhaka ICD terminal has increased manifold during the last 5 years. The big shipping lines like Maersk Line, American President Lines, Hapag Lloyd, NYK Lines, Evergreen, Cosco Shipping Lines, Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd , Hyundai are the frequent users of Dhaka ICD. The average number of laden boxes of all these lines to Dhaka ICD per month crosses 2,500. Most of these imported commodities are raw cotton, garments fabrics & garments accessories which in fact are being used in most of the export oriented factories in & around Dhaka, Gazipur & Narayanganj. Since railway is the cheapest & safest communication mode, most of the shipping lines are dependent on Bangladesh railway authorities. Bangladesh railway has been trying to accommodate most of the containers to & from Chittagong & Dhaka for import ex-Chittagong & export ex-Dhaka ICD. They were running two trains daily to carry all these import & export containers. But quite suddenly they have become irregular & have been placing only one train, instead of two trains per day which has created a bottleneck both for importing to Dhaka & carrying back empty containers to Chittagong. There has been a meeting with the DG railway at Dhaka as well as in Chittagong to increase the number of trains to two per day. But the railway authorities have informed most of the shipping lines that they can't place two trains due to shortage of engines. After reduction of the number of trains, there has been a long queue at Chittagong & most of the shipping lines are under pressure from consignees at Dhaka to deliver their goods and shipment to their ultimate buyers in the USA & Europe in time. In recent times, the shipping lines mentioned above have jointly made a presentation to the DG railway to seriously look into this problem & solve it. But the railway authorities have reportedly told them that they have to wait till 2010 to get new engines & place them in service. If this situation is not improved we apprehend that most of the shipping lines have to terminate their services to Dhaka ICD & discharge all containers at Chittagong port. Since RMG is our number one commodity for earning foreign exchange, termination of services to Chittagong will be a big jolt to most of the factories in Dhaka as well as Dhaka Export Processing Zone. In no way these containers can be brought to Dhaka by road due to the cost matrix. I would earnestly request the Bangladesh railway authorities to run at least two trains per day to cater to the needs of all. Will the communications minister kindly look into this?
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