Importers have been incurring massive losses as nearly 1.5 million tonnes of goods brought in from abroad have remained stuck at sea and river ports across the country for two days due to a water transport workers' strike that began at 12am on Friday.

Unloading of import cargo at Chattogram port's outer anchorage and over 50 river points as well as countrywide transportation of cargo on inland water routes remained suspended for the second consecutive day today.

Workers of lighter vessels, which carry 4.5 lakh tonnes of goods, refrained from unloading imported cargo from 20 bigger vessels at the outer anchorage of Chattogram port, according to shipping agents, ship handling operators and the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

The Bangladesh Water Transport Workers Federation announced the indefinite work abstention centring on the brutal killing of seven crewmen of lighter vessel MV Al Bakhera in Chandpur on December 23.

Seven workers of the lighter vessel, which was carrying 720 tonnes of urea from Chattogram to Baghabari, were found dead in the early hours of the day while it was anchored in the Chandpur area.

Abul Khair Group, a leading commodity importer of Bangladesh, imported 45,103 tonnes of yellow peas from Canada on a mother vessel named MV One Shine, which reached Kutubdia anchorage on December 23.

After lightering 3,000 tonnes of imported cargo at Kutubdia, the ship reached the outer anchorage of the port on December 26's night and has remained idle since then due to the workers' strike, Belayet Hossain, director of the ship's local agent Litmond Shipping Ltd, told The Daily Star.

The ship had plans to complete the unloading at best in 6 days, but, looks like the work stoppage would delay the process, he said.

The operators of these kinds of vessels have to pay $20,000 to $25,000 every day as demurrage, he said.

Meanwhile, around 10.5 lakh tonnes of import cargo got stuck at 773 lighter vessels that were waiting idle at 56 river points, said officials of Bangladesh Water Transport Coordination Cell.

Some 120 lighter vessels out of the 773 got stranded at Noapara Ghat area of Jashore and 77 at Narayanganj's Kanchpur.

These vessels are mostly carrying commodities such as wheat, sugar, lentils, yellow peas, salt, and edible oil, along with coal, stone, and industrial raw materials like cement clinker, slag, and fertiliser.

Workers are adamant to remain abstain from work until their demands are met, said Afsar Hossain Chowdhury, general secretary of Bangladesh Lighterage Workers Union.

The leaders of the federation, union, and government authorities, including the Department of Shipping and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, are scheduled to meet today, but this correspondent had not received any updates about the meeting by the time of submitting this report.