Mongla Port Authority signed a deal with a Chinese company earlier this week to dredge the inner bar of the Mongla Port channel to allow the anchoring of container ships with 10-metre draught.
According to United news of Bangladesh (UNB), Rear Admiral M Shahjahan, chairman of the Mongla Port Authority, and Yang Zhijum, representative of the contractor Jianshu Haihong Construction Engineering Company and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation signed the agreement.
The Tk 754.08 crore ($89.2 million) project will begin in January 2021 and end in July 2022.
Commenting the latest news, State Minister for Shipping, Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury , who joined the program online said: “The dredging of the outer bar area of Mongla Port channel has been completed with around Tk 700 crore and it is expected to serve ships with 10-metre draught soon.”
Vessels have already started sailing to and from the newly dredged channel on Mongla Port’s outer bar, UNB reports.
“The completion of the dredging of the inner bar area of Mongla Port channel will shorten the turnaround time of ships arriving at the port while cutting the cost of transporting goods,” Khalid Mahmud added.
The number of ships arriving at Mongla Port is set to surge, playing a major part in the economic development of the south-west part of the country.