Four major incidents of collision and grounding of ocean going ships in the channel took place last month. The ships that were grounded had narrowly escaped major disasters, sources said.

The rate of such incidents recently increased mainly due to communication gap between harbour and hydrological departments of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), the sources said, adding that the former often does not follow the hydrological department's suggestion regarding the draft for the channel.

It is alleged that often ships of longer draft or wrongly declared draft are permitted in exchange of handsome amounts of bribe, which is a major cause of such accidents.

"Lack of regular monitoring of the situation and periodic survey of the channel are the main causes of such incidents," said Sayeed Hossain Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners Association (BOGSOA).

Mainly foreign flag carriers face such accidents while bringing in high-draft ships through bribing the port officials, he said.

The BOGSOA president demanded special allocation for maintaining draft of the channel through regular dredging and formation of a special supervision team to monitor the situation from time to time.

Two ships got grounded on December 31 at the estuary of the River Karnaphuli. The port officials said the ships got stuck in thick fog as the pilots failed to trace the track.

The same day, the OEL Freedom, a Singapore registered ship navigated by pilot Badiuzzaman, landed on shore outside the channel while leaving Chittagong port for Singapore.

Oil tanker Sakura with pilot Captain Farid landed further upstream outside the channel.

Fully loaded with diesel, the ship narrowly escaped a major disaster as it got stuck in soft mud on the shore.

The ships were rescued after 12 hours when it was high tide in the channel.

On December 22, Singapore-bound container ship Quota Ratna hit small cargo vessel Diamond of Shimulia while crossing the channel at night. The cargo vessel sank and all the cargo was washed away.

The restriction on plying of small ships in the channel at night and during movement of big vessels is often violated and it makes the channel risky, sources said.

On December 13, Vietnamese flag carrier Vinashin Mariner got grounded on the channel. The ship had higher draft while entering into the channel. The permissible draft for the channel was 8.1 metre but the ship's was 8.5 metre draft. As a result it got stuck in the shoals and grounded. The port officials had given permission to the over-draft ship after 'underhand dealings', said a source.

Some of the incidents of such accidents may even be the acts of sabotage, said the source, adding that the Karnaphuli Channel is well marked with the buoys and plying of ships outside the channel should not be a difficult task.

Berthing of over-draft ships as well as negligence and incompetence of the pilots are responsible for the accidents. The ships can easily be handled in thick fog with the help of sophisticated navigational equipment but none of the ten pilots in Chittagong port is accustomed to using the equipment.

"Incidents of grounding of ships are due to negligence of the port authority and pilots because ships are not supposed to get permission to leave the port or anchor during thick fog without the mechanism to operate in fog," said a shipping ministry high official.

If they are permitted, the port authorities should train them properly about handling the sophisticated equipment that is necessary for piloting ships in fog, he said.

The pilots are supposed to be punished or fined for mistakes but there has hardly been any such instance, he added.

The permissible draft of the ships for the channel has been recently increased to 8.35 metre from 8.10 metre earlier showing the reason that the depth of the Karnaphuli channel increased while several officials termed the act 'unjustified'.