September 17, 2020: The Container Company of Bangladesh Limited formed four years ago to efficiently run container trains and manage loading and unloading of containers is yet to start its operational activities.
The company managing director Md Belal Uddin told New Age that they were hoping that the company would become fully functional within the next one to three years.
The company is yet to get the management authority to handle the Kamalapur Inland Container Depot while initiatives of building more depots are also in limbo.
After formation of the company in 2016, so far the company only managed to run a number container trains between India and Bangladesh this year.
Till now, the company has only one staff but a 10-member board of directors with nine permanent ex-officio positions and one changeable position of managing director, and a part-time secretary.
The railways ministry secretary is the ex-officio chairman of the board of directors of the company.
Against this background, the 23rd board meeting of the company is scheduled to be held on September 16.
Bangladesh Railway introduced container service 33 years ago in 1987 and now carries only 4 to five 5 cent of the containers, mainly carrying garment products released from the Chattogram port and the rest are carried using road transports, said officials.
The Chattogram Port Authority is running the port activities at railway’s Kamalapur Inland Container Depot to handle the containers under a contract with the railway as the railway has no such expertise and the contract will expire in 2024, they also said.
The registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms on May 17, 2016 issued a certificate of incorporation and a certificate of commencement of business of the autonomous company.
The company managing director Md Belal Uddin said that after joining the company in September 2019 he established the company office in two rooms in the Rail Bhaban.
Following a memorandum of understanding between CCBL and Container Corporation of India Limited in July this year container trains from India came at Benapole in Bangladesh, he said.
He also said that three to four container trains came from India which unloaded the goods — including cloths, dye and seeds — at Benapole land port.
Belal Uddin said that he had submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Railway in July 26 this year for transferring the management of Kamalapur ICD to the company.
They also took out a lease on 21.29 acres of land from the railway to build an ICD or off-dock at Chattogram, he said, expressing the hope that within December this year the bid documents would be prepared.
‘If we are given the responsibility of managing the Kamalapur ICD, our company will be fully functional by next one year,’ he said, ‘If we don’t get the responsibility then this company will be fully functional in the next three years.’
He mentioned that a consultant company was hired on December 20, 2017 for preparing the organogram, salary structure, job descriptions and specifications and recruitment plan for the company.
At the 22nd board meeting, held on August 16 this year, a five-member committee was formed to submit recommendations on the organogram, job description and specification, salary structure and recruitment plan submitted by the consultant company ABC Bangladesh Limited.
The committee is scheduled to submit its recommendations at the 23rd board meeting.
According to the work paper of the 23rd board meeting, as the company had no operational activities right now, the only source of fund at present are some fixed deposit receipts which came from the company’s initial paid-up capital.
The managing director draws Tk 1,38,400 (excluding income tax) each month and get Tk 60,000 on every Eid festival while the company secretary S Abdur Rashid is getting Tk 48,000 (with income tax and VAT) as monthly salary.
The company has plans to build ICDs in Ishwardi and Syedpur, where custom facilities and equipment to load and unload containers would be available, officials added.
Source: NEW AGE
