After a devastating fire damaged the cargo village at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, a new location has been designated for storing import and export goods. The blaze severely disrupted import-export operations, but the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has announced special arrangements to keep activities ongoing.
In a Sunday (October 19) evening statement, the NBR’s Public Relations Office said that, for the time being, the Dhaka Customs House is conducting cargo clearance using the Ground Support Equipment (GSE) maintenance area.
Customs officials are carrying out physical inspections of goods at the new site and have connected Asycuda World at Gate 9 to facilitate the clearance process, which has already begun from there.
Fire Incident Recap
The fire broke out around 2:30 PM on Saturday in the airport’s cargo village. Fire services deployed 37 units to control the blaze. Navy, Air Force, Civil Aviation authorities, two Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) platoons, police, and Ansar personnel were also present at the scene. The fire was finally brought under control by nightfall.
Preliminary reports indicate that nearly all imported goods stored in the cargo village were destroyed by the fire, causing significant setbacks to import-export activities.
Authorities are currently managing operations from the newly designated area to mitigate further disruption.
