Mongla port is set for a Tk4,068 crore expansion, with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman scheduled to lay the foundation stone for two new container jetties on Thursday in a major push to increase the country’s second seaport’s capacity.
China will finance Tk3,593 crore of the project, while the Bangladesh government will contribute Tk475 crore, Mongla Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral Arif Ahmed Mostafa said.
The prime minister is scheduled to reach the port at 10am on Thursday to launch the construction phase, which includes the jetties and supporting facilities. Bangladesh and China signed the project agreement on 10 October during the prime minister’s recent visit to China, the port chairman said.
Each of the two planned jetties will be 368 metres long. The project also includes a container yard and facilities for handling dangerous cargo.
The yard will have 49 pieces of equipment, allowing the port to unload more than 30 containers an hour and handle up to 400,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, according to the port authority.
A separate memorandum of understanding is also expected to be signed at jetty No 9 in the prime minister’s presence between Invest Bangladesh and the chairman of China Railway Construction Corporation.
Shaikh Faridul Islam, state minister for environment, forest and climate change and lawmaker from Bagerhat-3, said the proposed agreement would establish a railway connection with Mongla port.
The link would allow goods to reach the port directly by rail before being shipped overseas, he said. It could also help route exports from across the country through Mongla, boosting trade and creating employment in the south-western region.
The prime minister’s visit has raised expectations among businesses in the region. It will be his second visit to Mongla within 15 days, following his trip to the port and the Sundarbans on 22 October.
But port users say the new jetties alone will not resolve the infrastructure constraints holding back Mongla’s growth.
Mosharraf Hossain, president of the Mongla Port Shipping Agents Association, said the government needed to advance other supporting projects, including construction of the proposed Foyla airport and expansion of the Mongla–Khulna highway to six lanes.
He also identified poor navigability as a major obstacle and called for a lasting solution to dredging in the Pashur Channel.
Other priorities include removing barriers to import and export trade, developing environmentally sustainable tourism around the Sundarbans and ensuring the safety of fishermen and forest-dependent communities, he said.
Hossain hoped the prime minister’s visit would bring clear directions on resolving these long-standing issues.
