Bangladesh’s second busiest seaport, Mongla – which is developed to ease pressure on Chittagong port (the country’s main seaport) – is reportedly making good progress on the back of Government’s numerous measures and steps taken by the port authority.
The Mongla Port Authority maintained this while adding that there is an increase in number of local and foreign commercial vessels to the port lately.
As per media reports, six foreign ships at the same time berthed at the Mongla port on Monday, which is a record since the port’s inception.
The Chairman of Mongla Port Authority, Rear Admiral M. Shahjahan, maintained the Government has completed more than 50 development projects to enhance the port’s capacity, increasing the port usage by about 16 per cent per year.
It may be mentioned here that earlier due to navigability crisis of Pasur River, larger ships were not able to anchor at Mongla port jetty, which has now been resolved after dredging.
Bangladesh had earlier decided to undertake efforts towards Mongla port expansion to boost the country’s container capacity by 10 per cent.
The Government project in this direction was aimed at increasing Mongla’s container handling capacity to 400,000 TEU from 100,000 TEU (at present).
Further, in longer-term, capacity is expected to rise to 800,000 TEU by 2025.
All these efforts are expected to ease the burden on Chittagong port, which handles most of the country’s US $ 100 billion in foreign trade annually, causing frequent congestion.