CPA's subversive acts behind decline in box handling: CPSC

Chittagong: The Chittagong Port Safeguarding Committee (CPSC) on Friday accused the port authority of artificially curtailing the handling capacity of four rail-mounted key gantry cranes through installation of computer software.

'The port authority has reduced the handling capacity of the cranes with an ill motive to prove failure of local operators and make room for foreigners,’ the Committee Secretary General, Mahfuzur Rahman Khan, said in a written statement at a press conference at the Chittagong Press Club auditorium.

The Committee President, Golam Mohammed Chowdhury and other members, including Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, Abu Jafar Azad, Jahangir Alam, Abdul Ahad, Abdul Khaleque Chowdhury, Mohammed Iskander Mia, Mohammed Ilias and Sirajul Islam were present there.

They said that the authority was conducting different subversive acts to implement the blueprint of handing over the New Mooring Container Terminal and Chittagong Container Terminal to the private operators.

They added that the authority had recently transferred all the 15 technicians of the port, who were engaged in repairing different types of equipment, to the marine engineering department. The wholesale transfer would hamper the port activities seriously, they felt.

The Committee leaders demanded the authority stop what they termed all sorts of conspiracy to hand over the NCT and CCT to the private operators and to appoint the foreign operators for the gantry cranes.

Otherwise, they threatened of tougher movement to save the port and stop drainage of hard-earned foreign currency in the name of hiring foreign experts.