Dwaipayan Barua

Three The Daily Star correspondents visited six centres of the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) polls, housed in two schools in the port city.

More than 19 lakh voters are going to decide today the outcome of a high-voltage contest between the ruling Awami League and its archrival BNP in the Chattogram City Corporation election amid tight security.

Almost half the complaints filed by mayor and councillor candidates in the Chattogram City Corporation elections, to be held tomorrow, are yet to be addressed.

Women make up 48.83 percent of the electorate in the Chattogram City Corporation polls, but they feel neglected in the pledges made by the two major candidates. Women voters of Chattogram feel that the candidates did not place enough importance in tackling gender-based issues.

BNP nominated mayoral candidate Dr Shahadat Hossain yesterday pledged to make Chattogram city safe, clean and tourist-friendly, keeping international standards and communal harmony in mind.

Tea production in Bangladesh dropped 10.01 per cent year-on-year in 2020 because of adverse weather.

Both import and export costs have risen after the sea freight rate trebled in two months because of an acute shortage of empty containers and a rise in demand on the Asia-Europe and transpacific routes.

The cabinet committee on government purchase yesterday approved a proposal to import 50,000 tonnes of wheat.

The government in June last year granted a blanket immunity for whitening black money in a bid to bring them into the mainstream economy and generate more revenues and jobs.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday said that black money whitening has increased in the country as the government has given the scope to invest untaxed income in the housing sector.

A project on the construction of Chattogram City Outer Ring Road -- that was taken around ten years back in 2011 with four-year completion period -- is yet to be completed.

Incidents of ships colliding and running aground at the Chattogram port’s outer anchorage are alarmingly recurring, which officials and customers apprehend could tarnish the image of Bangladesh’s premier harbour in global shipping business.

The government is likely to downsize its income and expenditure targets in the revised budget because of lower revenue growth, slower implementation of development programmes and a fall in spending due to the pandemic.

A joint venture company that includes China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been awarded the Cox’s Bazar airport runway expansion work for Tk 1,568.86 crore.

Bangladesh is set to send 50,000 tonnes of its imported urea fertiliser to Nepal at the import price to help the landlocked country, which failed to purchase the organic compound on time due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Freight charges have risen in the last few weeks due to the adverse effects of Covid-19 on the global shipping sector, pushing the cost for importers and exporters in Bangladesh, industry people said.

Feeder vessel operators have imposed a surcharge on carrying containers between Chattogram and hub ports, saying severe congestion at the hubs is resulting in overstays and an increase in operational costs.

Bangladesh’s global trade pulled itself out of the debris left in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic aided domestic consumption, taking the volume of cargoes handled by the Chattogram port in October to a seven-month high.

Bangladesh’s steel sector needs business friendly policy support from the government in order to overcome the Covid-19 fallouts, according to Aameir Alihussain, managing director of BSRM, a leading steel manufacturer.

Businesses are counting massive losses as almost 22 lakh tonnes of goods have been waiting to be unloaded for two days at sea and river ports across the country.