The Chattogram port has been facing acute congestion caused by a pileup of import-laden containers, particularly ones bound for the Kamalapur inland container depot (ICD) in Dhaka.

This issue has been caused by slow railway transport due to a shortage of locomotives.

For over a month, authorities have been running only one or two pairs of freight trains between the port and the Dhaka ICD per day.

But port authorities say at least four pairs of trains need to make the trip daily to clear containers arriving at the dedicated Chattogram Goods Port Yard (CGPY).

An increase in the import of goods ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, which starts next month, only caused the pressure to intensify.

Around 70 percent of the goods arriving at the port belong to importers based in Dhaka and its surrounding areas. Of those, around 3 percent are transported by railways while the rest are moved over road and river routes.

The CGPY has space to store up to 876 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of Dhaka ICD-bound import-laden containers.

However, as of yesterday, it had exceeded more than twice the capacity, with 1,818 TEUs being crammed inside, raising concerns among the port authority as well as importers.

Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association Vice-President Khairul Alam Suzan said containers unloaded from vessels 15 days ago were yet to be loaded onto Dhaka-bound trains.

Sources at the port informed that at least 500 TEUs of Dhaka-bound containers were on board several vessels waiting to berth at the port.

Port users and officials said at least four trains are required to run daily and take away at least 200 TEUs of containers from the CGPY to Dhaka in order for the yard to function smoothly.

Data collected from the port shows that the railway made only 28 trips in the first 15 days of this month, taking 1,167 TEUs of containers to Dhaka.

From January 1 to January 31, a total of 68 trips were made, bringing 2,698 TEUs from the port to Dhaka.

Abdul Malek, chief master of the railway at the CGPY, said they need at least 4 to 5 locomotives to run daily whereas they are currently getting only one or two.

With the introduction of several train services on different routes, including the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar route, several locomotives have become otherwise engaged, causing a scarcity, he added.

To find a solution, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) sat in an urgent meeting with officials of Bangladesh Railway and Chattogram Custom House on Tuesday.

CPA Secretary Md Omar Faruk said they urged the railway authorities at the meeting to run at least three trains every day in order to carry a significant volume of containers to Dhaka.

To clear the backlog, he said the Chattogram Custom House was requested to give approval to take delivery of these Dhaka-bound containers either from the port yard or from the Pangaon Inland Container Terminal in Keraniganj.

The authorities of both institutions assured that they would take steps accordingly, Faruk said, adding that they were preparing to send letters to the two in this regard yesterday.

Usually, imported cargo is allowed to be delivered to the recipients from the destination point as mentioned in the import documents.