OEL Hind finally sets sail from Ctg port

The container ship that missed its scheduled departure from Chattogram port on Sunday morning after it was found to be listing to the starboard side, at last, left the port yesterday afternoon.

The Panama-flagged vessel, OEL Hind, began the voyage at 4:42 pm yesterday as the mercantile marine department of the government gave the no-objection certificate for setting sail after two days of survey, said Md Omar Faruk, secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

The feeder vessel is bound for Singapore carrying 1,194 TEUs (twenty feet equivalent units) of containers, including 1,089 TEUs of export goods.

The vessel steadied after the removal of 66 TEUs of containers on Sunday but the CPA did not allow its departure as it wanted to check whether the ship had any technical problems, said Muntasir Rubayat, head of operations of the ship's local agent, GBX Logistics.

Uneven cargo arrangement, thanks to misdeclaration of container weight by the private off-docks where the containers are weighed on board, was the reason behind the vessel's listing, he said.

After the removal of 66 TEUs of container equivalent to 33 containers on Sunday night, CPA found that those 33 containers had actual weights far in excess of the declared weights, said sources.

The actual weight of the 33 containers was 416 tonnes while their declared weight was 368.9 tonnes, Rubayat said.

Now, the ship may fail to connect with the designated mother vessel in Singapore on time, said Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee on port and shipping of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

So, there is uncertainty over the timely shipment of the goods to their destinations in Europe and the US. Many of these cargoes may need air shipment from Singapore if the respective buyers do not wait for the next mother vessel and in that case, the exporters would have to bear extra expenditure.

He called for steps to eliminate such malpractices at the port.