Bagerhat Correspondent :
Mongla is the 2nd Sea Port of the country. After the opening of the Padma Bridge for both vehicles and the pedestrians the export-import activities of cargoes through this Sea Port increased to a great extent. But the main problem of this Port is the sufficient draft or the shortage of navigability of the river Pashur, the channel of the Port. As a result, the ships with the high drafts (depth) cannot arrive at the port directly. At present depth / draft of the Channel are only 7 drafts or meters. Consequently, big ships are forced to anchor in the deep sea and lighter ships are used to carry the cargos from the mother ships to the jetties of the Port causing to the loss of both time and money.
In such a condition Mongla Port authorities want to increase the draft of the Pashur channel. So, the Port authorities placed a proposal of Tk. 1 (one) thousand 5 hundred 50 crors to the Planning Commission in order to translate the proposal into action. Under this project the draft of the Jetties will be increased to 9.5 drafts to 10 drafts and consequently, the big sized ships (mother vessels) will be able to arrive at the jetties of the Port easily. The project will be named as “Conservation/protection of the Dredging in the Pashur channel of Mongla Port.” It was already stated above that Mongla Port authorities submitted a proposal/project to the Planning Commission in which it is stated that the navigability of the Pashur channel of Mongla Port will be protected through performance based dredging and some 347.5 lakh cubic meters mud will be dredged out from the different places of the channel during the 5 years or less time,
Rear Admiral Shaheen Rahman, Chairman of Mongla Port Authorities told, Mongla is the nearest Sea Port from the capital city Dhaka. So, we undertook a 5 years plan and as a result of its continuation we decided to purchase a modern dredger and consequently, it will be very easy to maintain the draft of the Pashur channel within 9 to 10 draft. On the other hand, some 347.50 lakh cubic mud will be dredged out from the different places of the Pashur channel during the 5 years or less time.
Chairman of Mongla Port Authorities added that Mongla is the nearest sea Port from Dhaka, the capital city. So, we undertook a 5 years plan for the overall development of the port and as its continuations we decided to purchase a modern dredger, As a result, it will be very easy to maintain the draft (from 9 to 10 draft) of the channel (of the port and its adjacent areas) using the modern dredger.
Chairman of the Port Authorities disclosed that in order to handling the ships at the inner bar of the Port was dredged out in the year 2022 and the desired result was found. But by this time the many places of the outer bar was dredged out only a few years ago and it was Ok. But by this time some of the places of the outer were silted up with sands. So, the dredging of both inner and outer bars should be regularly dredged out in order to maintain the draft of the channel.
