The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) have decided to close a 20-ft-wide gate, which was built by tearing down a portion of the boundary wall of the protected area of Chittagong port without the permission of the Customs authorities. CPA chairman Rear Admiral M Khaled Iqbal told media-persons yesterday at a briefing following a meeting of the Port Security Advisory Committee at CPA’s training centre, “It has been decided that the gate, which you are calling unauthorised, will be closed within two or three days. We are going to open a new gate named NCT-2. When the new gate is opened, the unauthorised gate will be closed.”
The Independent on Augusts 22 published a news item titled ‘Chittagong port security at risk’ mentioning the illegal gate and the security risks it poses to the port.
The meeting included representatives of all the authorities that work for the security of Chittagong port.
The chairman also said a total of 800 new CCTV cameras would be installed to keep the entire Chittagong port area under surveillance. The CPA built the gate, some 500 metres south-west of the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) without taking any permission from the Customs authorities. The gate has no Customs official, CCTV cameras, checkpoint, or weigh-bridge for vehicles entering and leaving the port.
This came to light after The Independent published a news report on August 22, titled ‘Unauthorised gate at Ctg port, security at risk’. The CPA chairman said Chittagong port is in compliance with International Ship and Port Security Code (ISPS). All security measures are taken to maintain ISPS compliances, he added.
At the meeting, a PowerPoint presentation showed that traffic accidents as well as incidents of theft and mugging at the port have fallen. Representatives from different intelligence branches, the Army, Customs officials, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Bangladesh Navy, Coast Guard, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chittagong Metropolitan Chamber, Bangladesh Shipping Association and other organisations attended the meeting.