After getting divided into factions a few days ago, leaders of ship owners have decided to reunite and work together under one umbrella for the development of maritime trades in Bangladesh. Being intervened by the government, they decided to get united under Water Transport Coordination Cell (WTCC), a joint body of Cargo Vessels Owners' Association (BCVOA), Inland Vessels Owners' Association of Chittagong (IVOAC) and Coastal Ship Owners' Association of Bangladesh (CSOA) on May 16 (Tuesday).
The associations got separated on May 13. The decision to get together has come after the association leaders had hold a meeting chaired by Director General (DG) of Department of Shipping Commodore Syed Ariful Islam on Tuesday at the conference hall of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), said sources.
Among others, Chief Engineer of Shipping Department AKM Fakhrul Islam, Chief Officer of Maritime Trade Department Captain Shafiqul Islam, Director (Transport) of CPA Golam Sarwar, Harbour Master of CPA Captain Faridul Alam, Vice President of BCVOA Kaji Abdul Karim, General Secretary Mohammed Nurul Haque, Vice President of CSOA Lakhman Chandra Dhar, President and General Secretary of IVOAC Haji Shafique Ahamed and Parvej Ahamed and leaders of the concerned organizations were present in the meeting.
Leaders of the three trade bodies discussed the prevailing crises in the WTCC and agreed to solve them. Syed Ariful Islam said, "The government is very much concerned about the partition of WTCC as it might affect maritime trade in Bangladesh." "So, we have called the leaders of concerned organizations and hold meetings", he added.
President of IVOAC Haji Shafique Ahamed has said the association leaders have agreed to work unitedly under the WTCC like they did before, forgetting all disputes. With this, IVOAC has suspended its May 13 decision to give serial for cargo ships at the Chittagong sea port from May 21 separately.
The leaders also wanted to form a different platform for operating the cargo and inland lighter-age ships by coming out from WTCC. Earlier, BCVOA, IVOAC and CSOA jointly formed the WTCC in the year of 2003.