318 hazardous chemical containers have lain at Chattogram Port for years, with a tender move to remove them

At Chattogram Port, the country’s main seaport, 318 containers carrying hazardous chemical goods have been lying there for years. Several of the containers have become dilapidated.

The containers are increasing the safety risk at the port and disrupting normal operations. The Chattogram Port Authority has written to the customs authority several times asking for the containers to be removed.

Customs officials have said that, under a decision of an inter-ministerial meeting, an initiative is being taken to remove the containers.

In 2020, an ammonium nitrate explosion at Beirut port in Lebanon killed more than two hundred people. That incident raised concern worldwide about the safe storage of hazardous chemicals at seaports.

At Chattogram Port too, four workers were injured in a chemical explosion in 2015. In 2022, a container carrying batteries caught fire. In the same year, 50 people lost their lives in an explosion in a hydrogen peroxide container at the BM Container Depot in Sitakunda.

Various chemical products are imported through Chattogram Port for different industrial factories. These products include flammable and explosive substances.

Because of legal and paperwork complications, many containers of these hazardous goods have been lying in the port’s sheds and yards for a long time.

According to the Chattogram Port Authority, as of 30 September this year, 318 containers carrying hazardous goods had been handed over to the customs authority for disposal. However, the containers are still inside the port.

Mahfuzul Haque Shah, a former director of the Chattogram Chamber, said space at Chattogram Port is already inadequate. On top of that, the risky and hazardous containers have long occupied valuable port space.

He said that if the hazardous flammable substances and chemicals in these containers are not removed, an accident could happen at any time. The containers therefore need to be removed to make the port risk-free.

Syed Refayet Hamim, secretary of the Chattogram Port Authority, said there are many containers carrying chemical goods at Chattogram Port. Of them, 318 containers had been handed over to customs as of 30 September this year. Customs will gradually carry out auction and destruction work on the containers.

Sharif Mohammad Al Amin, assistant commissioner of the Chattogram Customs authority, said an initiative to remove the containers has been taken under the decision of the inter-ministerial meeting. The work will be completed through a tender process, following the applicable sections and rules of the procurement policy.