Potential of Mongla Port

Potential of Mongla Port
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Syed Shahid Hossain

THE Mongla Sea Port is situated in the southwestern parts of Bangladesh. The previous name of this port was 'Chalna Port' but the place now has too shallow water and subsequently had to go further down to keep its navigability. The present place where the vessels berth is known as Mongla. During the Pakistan period this was an ideal anchorage port and, due to its advantageous position of having more than 17 jute mills located in Khulna and Jessore belt, was the busiest port of export of mainly jute and jute goods.

During that period, on average around 25/30 break bulk vessels usually called in the Mongla Port. But after liberation due to various kinds of vessels sinking, the port navigability has been affected as the wreckage of the sunken vessels could not be salvaged fully. Even after independence this port had handled different kinds of bulk cargo vessels like cement, fertilisers and wheat. Around 15 to 20 vessels used to anchor at this port per month .

With the introduction of Mongla Port Permanent Jetty, this port started handling on an average four to six feeder vessels per month for transhipment of cargo to Singapore and Colombo as well.

It is regrettable that during these 38 years of independence, though government has earned quite a substantial amount of money from this particular port, no development programme had been taken to keep it alive.

After independence, in addition to jute mills, a new export commodity has been added to the list of export items in Khulna -- shrimps. There are around 17-20 shrimps factories situated in and around Khulna -- Mongla highway. Khulna has become one of the biggest shrimps exporters of our country. These factories exports around 1000 container per year to USA, Europe and the Far East. But now this industrial city and port is limping in all respects with the deterioration of Mongla port, resulting in many workers and labourers losing their jobs.

The so-called Mongla EPZ has also been affected for not having adequate infrastructure facilities and also for want of gas supply. As we all know, energy has become a vital part of our day-to-day life and the Mongla EPZ will not attract foreign investors if we can't ensure gas supply to this region.

At one time, big break bulk vessels from the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Singapore and Japan had called at this port as it had discharging facilities on both sides of the vessels. The vessels were able to anchor at this port. Government comes and government goes but what we have seen is that the fate of the Mongla Port remains unchanged. Due to heavy siltation, the present river draught alongside the port jetty has come down to six meters from earlier 7.5 metres. Dredging is needed in the channels of the Mongla Port, specially the river Pussur, which is the main thoroughfare for vessels in and out of this port.

Now due to poor and shallow navigability, very few feeder vessels call at the Mongla Port. The foreign owners of these vessels however are too scared about their feeder vessels touching the river bed which may cause damage to their ships' bottom.

With the change of government many commitments were made to purchase a permanent dredger for the Mongla Port Authority. This would save foreign currency as well as make possible regular dredging to keep the channel and port navigable round the year. This decision was shelved by different ministries for years together and has never seen the light.

On the other hand, vessel owners are very reluctant to call at Mongla with their imports, being afraid of damaging their feeder vessels/break bulk vessels. We see the Chittagong Port has no space to keep cars yet we cannot divert these vessels to the Mongla Port because their desired draught is not available here. Another advantage of this port is that the world's biggest mangrove forest, called "The Sunderbans", is situated close to this port but we can't attract foreign tourists due to inadequate facilities like modern cruising boats, hotels, motels and security arrangements.

With the development of the Mongla Port, the government can also earn a huge amount of foreign currency if they can develop the port by dredging the port and build infrastructure facilities like that of the Chittagong Port. With the construction of "The Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project," access to the Mongla Port from the capital city of Dhaka will be only four hours' journey by road. It will be closer from the Chittagong Port.

We would like to request the proper authority to give priority to make this port effective by purchasing a dredger immediately and to revitalise so that it can run side by side like the Chittagong Port. At least 50 per cent of our total imports can be handled at this port. We talk about inviting Nepal and Kolkata to use this port but honestly speaking it is a far cry as in no way will India want to reduce their foreign earning by using our port.

We hope that a master plan for improvement of Mongla Port should be taken immediately and accordingly a foreign consultant should be appointed to prepare a long term plan for the use of this port. Before the completion of "The Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project", the port should be able to increase its draught, the channels, buoys and berthing facilities alongwith other equipment necessary to run it smoothly.

If these conditions are fulfilled, the Mongla Port can fully utilise its five permanent jetties and can earn a substantial amount of revenue for the government. We hope the ministries concerned would all come forward to save this port and mitigate the unemployment problem faced by the people in and around it.
Saturday May 23 2009
The Financial Express