Mongla Port buzzes with business amid development work

Once a sleepy seaport Mongla has turned into a busy hub of export and import business over the past 13 years thanks to a number of development projects taken by the government.

According to the port authorities, 15 projects have been implemented for the development of Mongla port from 2009 to 2020 at a cost of Tk1372.8 crore.

Nine more development projects are underway ahead of Vision-2041, sources added.

Among these projects, The Vessel Traffic Management and Information System (VTMIS) was inaugurated on March 16 to monitor the movement and safety of domestic and foreign ships arriving at the port and to improve the quality of service provided by ship handling.

Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, state minister for shipping, inaugurated the project.

Besides, work on the construction of surface water treatment plants to meet the demand for safe potable water in ocean-going vessels, port offices, and residential areas, is in the final phase, port officials said.

Arrangements are being made to bring ships of 9 and a half meters in the 130 km naval channel from Bay of Bengal to Mongla port. Tk 6,000 crore project has already been taken for the upgrading the port.

With the opening of the Padma Bridge and the railway line, the activities of the port will be further increased.

Zahirul Haque, head of planning at Mongla Port, said the port would have a direct link with capital Dhaka after the launch of the Padma Bridge along with other port-centric infrastructure. As a result, the activities of the port will increase manifold, he added.

"The government is doing everything possible to make Mongla Port more dynamic to meet future challenges," he said.

The construction and modernization work is underway for increasing the capacity and efficiency of handling capacity of 3,000 ships, 30,000 vehicles, 8 lakh TUZ containers and 40 million MT cargo at Mongla port by 2025-30.

Because of these initiatives the port, the country's largest after Chittagong Port, is on way to make profit in its operation, said the officials wishing anonymity.