Theft incidents drops at Chittagong Port

Chittagong: The incidents of piracy have sharply declined at the outer anchorage of the Chittagong port and its adjacent areas in the Bay of Bengal in the recent time due to stringent security measures taken by the authorities concerned.

Sources in the Department of Shipping and the Chittagong Port Authority said the authorities succeeded in stopping the major incidents of piracy at the port areas totally, and in reducing the number of petty incidents of piracy remarkably.

Only 17 incidents of piracy took place in the Chittagong port and its adjoining areas in 2005 while it was 54 in 2004, they said adding that about a dozen incidents of petty piracy took place in the first three months of the current year when the pirates fled with ropes and fuel of the vessels.

Proper implementation of the International Ship and Port Facility Security code and strengthening regular patrol by the security forces in the Bay helped to reduce piracy at the port areas, and the authorities were very alert to make the port a safer place, the port and shipping department officials said.

‘The entry of the unauthorised people has been stopped through implementation of the ISPS code which has helped to reduce piracy at the port channel and the adjacent sea,’ the shipping department director general, AKM Shafiqullah, told New Age.

He said the ISPS code had been successfully implemented to check major piracy in the sea, upholding the image of the country’s main maritime port abroad.

The CPA Chairman, AMM Shahadat Hossain said that apart from adequate logistic support to the coastguard, the authority extended all-out cooperation to its regular patrol team to fight piracy.

‘We provide the coastguard authorities with two tugboats permanently while another boat daily for regular patrol duty which has strengthened the security at the outer anchorage and adjacent areas,’ the chairman said.

The Chittagong port topped on the International Maritime Organisation’s list among the piracy-prone areas in the world in 2004 when 54 incidents of piracy took place which was all-time high at the port.

The recent progress in curbing piracy would help to restore country’s image to the IMO as well as abroad, the top officials said.