Rains drown sales at Chaktai-Khatunganj market

The situation has worsened for traders of the Chaktai-Khatunganj wholesale market yesterday as incessant rains for the past couple of days in Chattogram have left most of it inundated, resulting in a 60 percent to 70 percent fall in trade. 

However, the traders say they have been able to prevent the rain and tidal waters from entering their shops in the market, one of Bangladesh's largest wholesale hubs for household essentials.

According to the Khatunganj Trade and Industries Association, about 4,000 businesses and over 5,000 warehouses are running at the century-old business hub.

But they, alongside the labourers making a living there, said to be passing days with scarcely any work as business activities have almost come to a halt for the last four days.

Many low-lying areas of the port city are also waterlogged, with Chattogram Met Office recording 231.4mm of rainfall, the highest in the district this year, in the 24 hours till 3:00pm yesterday.

A visiting to the market revealed it to be devoid of its usual hubbub as the rains had stymied the movement of goods.

"Our sales have dropped by at least 60 per cent to 70 percent as there are no buyers for the rain," Safiul Islam, executive member of Chaktai-Khatunganj Warehouses Samiti, an association of people running warehouses in the market, told The Daily Star.

"Most of our customers are not interested to come to the market to buy goods," he said.

"…water has not entered the shops," said Abdur Rahman, a commodity trader of the Badshah Mia market at Khatunganj.

But goods cannot be transported to other areas due to most of the city remaining inundated with water for the past fourdays, he said.

There is a possibility that the goods could be damaged during transportation as almost all of it is traded out in the open or in sacks while transporters will charge higher rates, he added.