Eight dredger workers died Monday (24 October) night as a dredger sank in the sea due to heavy wind of cyclone Sitrang.
The dredger was dredging the Sandweep channel and sending sand for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar, an industrial park in Chittagong.
Also, a total of 35 people died from the cyclone across Bangladesh.
There were nine workers in the dredger namely Saikat-2 which sank adjacent to jetty number 3 of the industrial park. One of the workers could reach the shore after the dredger sank.
Meantime, a Myanmar national, a crew of a vessel, died on Monday after falling from the ship due to heavy wind of cyclone in Teknaf river port in Cox’s Bazar district in the south.
The cyclone seriously disrupted trade as seaports and river ports were forced to shut operations amid high danger alerts.
The Chittagong and Mongla ports kept containers handling suspended for nearly 24 hours and resumed operation Tuesday (25 October) after the cyclone left Bangladesh and the danger signal was lifted.
With this unwanted closure, the Chittagong port alone saw a disruption of loading and unloading of at least 6,000 TEUs and delivery of at least 2,000 TEUs from its yards.
As the loading and unloading operations were disrupted for 24 hours, the vessels will have to wait another day. Usually, nowadays vessels stay between 48 and 72 hours in jetties to unload boxes and reload.
Sharar Nayel
Asia Correspondent
