Indispensable Element of National Economy

Chittagong Port has very rightly been called the heart of the national economy that has been playing a pivotal role in the export-import trade of the country. If Chittagong Port is considered the ‘heart of economy’, the private Inland Container Depots (ICDs) or the Dry Ports, also called the Off-docks, are to be termed the principal arteries and veins to that heart without which heart would stop pumping blood. If we care to take a glimpse at the statistics, the growth of container traffic through Chittagong Port has been quite considerable and it will remain so or more in the coming years and it goes without saying that it is a very strong indicator of economic growth. Now there has hardly been any expansion in Chittagong Port in the last decade and so the question that inevitably comes is how Chittagong Port has coped with this huge container traffic growth. The simple reply is: private ICDs. It is the private ICDs that have worked in strong coordination with Chittagong Port and kept this heart of economy beating in a healthy and sustainable way.