The dredging of outer bar area of Mongla Port channel has been completed ahead of schedule and the new dredged channel has been comissioned to the large merchant ships to utilise Mongla Port, said officials.
With the completion of the works Mongla Port could achieve the desired depth of channels which would vastly increase the navigability of the Mongla Port, a senior official of Mongla Port Authority told the FE Tuesday.
The port is currently taking 8.5 metre draft ship, which is expected to serve 10 metre draft ships soon, he added.
“As a world-renowned leading contractor in infrastructure including marine works, we take Bangladesh as a prospective market and we are keen to contribute to the socio-economic development of the nation and materializing of the Golden Bangla Dream,” said project manager Li Guangqi from China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
The project work was initiated on January 13, 2019, and was completed on December 03, 2020, two weeks ahead of scheduled time despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, said sources.
The project contractor, a joint venture of Chinese HKRE and CCECC, mobilised three giant dredger facilities including two hopper dredgers and one of the world’s largest cutter suction dredger, the 40 inch Xin Hai Teng for the execution of the project and yielded great success even they had to wade through three devastating cyclones-Fani, Bulbul and Amphan and two monsoon seasons during the contract period, said sources.
Mongla Port is set to expand dredge the inner bar of Mongla Port channel to facilitate the anchoring of container ships with drafts of 10 meters of the port from January 2021 when the Padma bridge becomes fully operational with the continuous development and improvement of the port facilities and road connectivity from the port to Dhaka and North Bengal,
Mongla Port has the potential of handling 10,000 ships by 2050 to become the transport hub for Bangladesh and neighboring countries including India, Nepal and Bhutan.
