The New Nation - Internet Edition

Our Correspondent, Barisal

Fertilizers worth Tk.27 lakhs has been declared as damaged by the authority after damaged after emergency unloading completed from the cracked vessel the MV Sajal 1 on Saturday night.

Cargo and agriculture official sources said that due to damages of 385 metric tons of fertilizers packed in 7,690 sacks; more than 25,600 farmers would be deprived from free supply of fertilizers.

Present value of the damaged fertilisers estimated as 26,95,000 taka as per price of Tk.7 per Kg. of granular Urea and it was planned that Sidr affected every farmer will get 15 Kg granular Urea free of cost from this supply aided by UNFAO.

Mahbub Alam, logistic officer of United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), revealing this facts said that after emergency unloading completed rest 4,450 sacks fertilisers stored at buffer godown in Barisal and 1,100 put on 4 trawlers in good condition and would be stored in the godown within a short time. Agriculture ministry of Bangladesh Government already informed about the incident and will take decision about damaging fertiliser by the carrier vessel, he added.

The cargo master, Enayet Hossain, said they had left Chittagong laden with 662 metric tons of granular Urea packed in 13,240 sacks containing 50kg of granular urea in per sack, at 2:00am Tuesday and reached the Barisal KDC jetty on the west bank of the Kirtankhola at 6:00pm Wednesday.

On the way, the route was rough and due to heavy rolling and less navigability near S S Buoy in Sandip Channel, the hull of the vessel several times dragged with the bottom of the river.

However the vessel reached Barisal KDC godown jetty on Wednesday and at about 3:00pm Thursday, the crew noticed cracks in the hull, which water soaking into the cargo.

The vessel was immediately moved to the east bank of the river on navigation safety grounds and started emergency unloading by employing about 100 laborers.

Two pumps were deployed to flush water out of the vessel and emergency unloading completed on Saturday night.