New era ushered in history of Mongla Port

Prof. ABM Mosharraf Husain, Bagerhat :

A new era has been ushered in the history of Mongla Sea Port just with the opening of the long desired Padma Bridge as the number of the arrival of new ships is on the increase at the port day by day.
 Once upon a time due to the insufficient navigability of Mongla Sea Port channel foreign commercial ships with 6 to above draft at first used to arrive at Chottotgram Port where unloading containers they (ships) used to arrive at Mongla Port. As a result, businessmen of both Bangladesh and the foreign countries were not at all wiling to use Mongla Port for export-import of the containerized goods. But after the completion of the dredging of 30 kilometers inner bar of the port from the entry point of it (from the Bay of Bengal to the port) at a cost of Tk.793 cros 72 lakh 80 thousand. As a result, ships with 9.5 to 10 drafts can easily enter into the channel of the port and anchor with jetties and they can be handled easily.
 In order to increase the facilities of the port some 10 projects were already implemented at the port. On the other hand, construction works of Khulna-Mongla Rly Bridge and Rampal coal based Power Plant are near completion. By this time Mongla Port based commerce and industries of the country are flourishing rapidly.
So, the future of Mongla Port is very prosperous. On the other hand, both the local and foreign investors are very interested to invest money in Mongla based commerce and industries. Mongla Port was able to earn a sum of Tk.497 cros 31 lakh as the neat profit during the financial years of 2015-16 to 2019-19. During the period some 3 thousand commercial ships arrived at the port. In the financial years of 2020-2022 earned double as the neat profit and the arrival of ship at the port was also double.
 It was disclosed by the Mongla Port Authorities. In the financial year of 2017-18 the Port earned Tk.109 cros 33 lakh as the neat profit while some 780 commercial ships arrived at the port in the period. In the financial year of 2018-19 the port earned a sum of Tk.133 cros as neat profit and at that time as many as 912 commercial ships arrived at the port. During the financial year of 2019-20 the port earned Tk.117 cros as neat profit and some 963 ships arrived at the port in the same financial year. During the period from July, 2020 to December 17, 2020 as many as 459 commercial ships arrived at the port. All those ships carried fertilizes, cement, clinkers, coals, ceramic clay, LPG gas, fly ashes, edible oil, general cargo and heavy machineries for Rampal and Ruppur Power Plants and other imported goods.
Ashraduzzaman, President of greater Khulna Development Sngram (Struggle) Committee told, the activities of Mongla, the second Sea Port of the country increased double by this time due to various important and necessary steps were taken in time by the government and Mongla Port Authorities. After the completion of the construction work of Rampal Power Plant and opening of Khulna-Mongla Rly service, the mobility (velocity) of the trade and commerce will be increased in the south-west region of the country including Mongla and Khulna to a great extent.
 Rear Admiral Mohammad Musa, Chairman of Mongla Port Authorities told the newsmen, after the implementation of various necessary and important projects taken by the government in time the activities and importance of the Mongla Port increased to a lot.
The Chairman added, just with the opening of Padma Bridge the distance of Mongla to Dhaka and Mongla to North Bengal was shortened and transport cost and time were minimized to a great extent. As a result, the business men are now very interested to use Mongla Port.