Dwaipayan Barua

Queues of goods-carrying vehicles stretched nearly 20km by early hours of yesterday

Ships leave half-empty, import deliveries fall

The export of denim products from Bangladesh is expected to face significant disruption as the country’s largest denim manufacturer, Pacific Jeans Group, has indefinitely shut down all eight of its factories in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) following days of violent worker protests.

Transport of import and export cargo as well as containers to and from Chattogram port came to a standstill since yesterday morning as transport owners enforced a wildcat strike for an indefinite period protesting a fourfold hike in vehicle entry fee by the authority.

The eight-storey factory building at the Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), which was completely destroyed in a massive fire on Thursday afternoon, had structural flaws and lacked a mandatory fire safety plan, according to fire service officials.

Say officials; fire brought under control after 17 hours

The situation would be aggravated by a 60 percent charge hike by the inland container depots

The government announced a 41 percent average increase in service charges on September 14