CHITTAGONG: Neighbouring India got last Tuesday the transshipment facility as a foreign ship used Chittagong port for its cargo to be re-shipped to its ports.
Container vessel MV Iravati Star which sailed from Lam Chabang of Thailand with 250 containers, anchored at jetty 13 of Chittagong port on Tuesday. It arrived at Chittagong port via Ho Chi Min port of Vietnam, Singapore, Port Kelung of Malaysia and Myanmar. The vessel unloaded 92 cargo-laden containers at the port the next day and left for Haldia port of Kolkata.
The containers will be re-shipped to Chennai, Kochin and Novosheba ports by another vessel, port officials said. They said there is no provision of direct shipment to those Indian ports from Myanmar.
India has been seeking transit and transshipment facilities to take home their imported cargo through Chittagong port. But political causes stood on the way to such facilities for long.
Shipping circles said a consignment of cargo was transshipped from Chittagong port by road in 2002. In the year 2012 two containers, laden with plastic goods, were transshipped from China to Nepal through Chittagong port. But no cargo was transshipped from Chittagong to any Indian port.
Director (admin) of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Zafar Alam observed that transshipment of cargo to another country through a third country port is nothing strange in the globalised economy. It is a matter of the shipping lines.
