News / Rail crisis sees boxes pile up at Dhaka – with Ramadan and Eid looming

Photo: Chittagong Port.

Box lines are increasingly concerned that an imbalance in Bangladesh’s rail capacity could cause chaos in the run-up to Ramadan and the April peak season, which coincides with this year’s Eid.

Over Eid, rail operators prioritise passenger services, and there are suggestions that railfreight movements could be halted for up to a week, resulting in as many as 3,000 teu of imports idling at Chittagong’s inland container depot by the end of April.

Fayyaz Khundker, chair of Bangladesh’s Container Shipping Association (BCSA), said that on Monday there were already 1,287 teu of Dhaka-bound cargo at the depot, which has a listed maximum capacity of 876 teu.

This is well in advance of the Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr holy months and Mr Khundker told The Loadstar that, “unless any proactive measures are taken immediately, a catastrophic situation may occur in the coming months”.

He added: “Only six to seven months ago there was a backlog of 60 days for boxes destined for Dhaka from Chittagong by train.”

At present, due to ongoing shortages of rolling stock and manpower, Bangladesh Railway is operating just a single service a day, and with a backlog building the operator would need to quadruple this if it is to clear the backlog, or risk huge bottlenecks at both Chittagong and Dhaka.

The BCSA will tomorrow urge the railway and Chittagong Port Authority to take proactive measures as soon as possible.

Muntasir Rubayat, director of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents’ Association, told The Loadstar an April backlog had been expected for some time, with Ramadan resulting in an reduction in working hours across the country.

He added: “The railway thus needs to chalk-out a plan now on how to face the situation. They will have to run extra trains for quick turnaround of containers.”

Others claim a failure to act would lead to an “unmanageable” situation in the coming weeks.