Ctg port's container scanners undergo maintenance to optimise performance

Chattogram Customs is proactively maintaining seven container scanners at the Chattogram Port to optimise those performances.

This preventive maintenance, taking two days per scanner, began last Friday and will continue until 16 September. While a scanner is being serviced, operations continue uninterrupted at an adjacent gate's scanner, customs officials say.

According to the Chattogram Customs House, out of 12 gates of the port, seven gates have container scanners. Of these, five are fixed and two are mobile scanners. These scanners only scan containers carrying imported goods. These scanners checked 450,000 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Chattogram Customs House spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Barrister Md Bodruzzaman Munshi said during the maintenance of the scanners, containers will be scanned in the scanner installed at the adjacent gate. 

Five R Associates is doing container scanner maintenance at the port.

According to Chattogram port data, in the 2022-23 fiscal year, the port's Kamalapur ICD (Inland Container Depot) in Dhaka and Pangaon ICT (Inland Container Terminal) handled a total of 3,007,344 TEUs containers. Of those, 1,557,542 TEUs containers were imported goods. 

Chattogram Customs House Authority said maintenance was conducted on the scanner at Port Gate No-5 on 18 and 19 August. The rest of the container scanners will undergo maintenance on the following schedule: CCT Gate No-2 on 22-23 August, Gate No-4 on 25-26 August, Port's Gate No-2 on 29-30 August, CCT Gate No-2 on 1-2 September, CCT Gate No-1 on 8-9 September, and NCT-3 on 15-16 September.

Customs authorities installed scanners to deter smuggling, undeclared imports, and fraud. They image diverse items such as organic, non-organic, metal, and plastic, simplifying and accelerating the verification of container contents.

Presently, seven scanners exclusively process imports; additional units funded by the port will soon inspect export goods. The National Board of Revenue is in the process to install new scanners, customs officials say.