The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Chittagong

Historic Chittagong Port, the country's principal seaport, observed 120th 'Port Day' yesterday with a brief programme pledging to maintain the current pace of productivity and development resulted from a massive reforms initiated by the present caretaker government.

The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) observes 'Port Day' on April 25 each year as the port get institutionalised for the first time through enactment of Port Commissioner's Act in 1887 which was introduced on 25th April 1888.

The appointed Commissioner started functioning from the same year. The 3-day programme undertaken by the CPA on this occasion inaugurated yesterday morning through hoisting of national and port flag a top at the port bhavan and 3-minute long blowing of whistles at all stationery ships at port harbour.

CPA chairman Commodore Muhammad Faruq inaugurated formally the programme.

Other programmes include blood donation by the CPA employees at port hospital yesterday, serving improved diet to the patients at hospital and doa mahfil at mosques , temples and monastery under the jurisdiction of CPA yesterday.

CPA chairman will also brief the newsmen on the overall state of the port tomorrow.

The history of this port dates back to the 4th century BC. Chittagong was known in the 9th century onwards to the 15th century as 'SHETGANG' -an Arabic word meaning 'Delta of the Ganges' .

The old port in this part of the world had sufficient trade and was important enough to attract fleet from the Middle Eastern ports, China and other South Eastern countries.

During the 9th century, the Muslim traders known as Banik from Arabian Peninsula and Yemen started using the Chittagong port as their base port, then popularly known as 'Port Grande'.

During its activities over the centuries, the name and fame of the port reached far and wide. According to works of great traveler Fa-Hien, Hieu-en-Tsang and Ibn Batuta, the port of Chittagong mingled with the ancient civilization of the world.

The Chinese, Turkish and traders from Middle East and Europe used to trade with this part of the world through this port. In the year 1517, Joaoda Silveria , the first Portuguese captain reached the port with his ship 'LOPO SOANA' and the year 1526 marked the anchoring of vessels by Captain Caaz Penira at Chittagong.

During and after the Portuguese existence, Chittagong port emerged as one of the busiest and competitive ports in the Southeast Asia. From 1887 to 1910, only four jetties were constructed to handle 0.5 million tones of cargo annually.

After it's long historic journey, Chittagong port become the country's principal sea port which at present handling over 3 crore metric tons of cargo per annum. It handles 9.5 Lakh TEU's(Twenty Equivalent Units) of containerized cargo against the declared capacity of 2.5 lakh TEU's.

The Author of the book 'The history of the port of Chittagong', Mesbahuddin Khan traced down the history of the port into five phases- the Harbour era (before 1888),beginning of operation(1888-1900), transformation period (1901- 1947), reformation period (1948-1971)and new journey started from 1972.

CPA and Custom House sources said that Chittagong port contribute to earn yearly approximate 70 per cent of the total national revenue equivalent to Taka around 11,500 crore through export- import trade and it handled 80 percent out of the country's total export-import trade.

Statistics shows that it achieved growth every year and handles nearly 1800 vessels annually. It handled 9.58 lakh TEUs of containers while 3.08 crore metric tons of cargoes in 2007 which are 9.34 percent and 2.19 percent more respectively compared to the calendar year 2006.

The seaport witnessed a massive reform during 2007 under active supervision of Army-led joint forces which resulted in raising of both the productivity and dynamism to a great extent.