Mongla Port, country's second-largest seaport, bounced back from virtual dereliction into vibrant operation and earned a net profit of Tk 601.20 million (Tk 60.12 crore) in the last fiscal through handling rising external trade.
Officials said the profit earned in 2014-15 marked a growth of 12.08 per cent over the previous fiscal year.
The port, which was almost on the verge of being abandoned mainly owing to navigability problem, handled a total of 416 ships and 42,137 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers in the last fiscal, as against 384 ships in the previous fiscal, the sources said.
The number of ships that visited the port was only 95 in the fiscal 2007-8.
The situation has improved substantially in recent days mainly due to the undertaking of about nine development projects and four development programmes at a cost of Tk 5.51 billion over the last few years to make the port operational.
The works included procurement of cutter-suction dredgers, navigational aids and dredging of the Pushur river and harbour channels.
Six of the development projects and 4 development programmes have already been completed.
Because of the initiatives, arrival and departure of ships at the Mongla port have also increased substantially.
At the same time, the port's capacity to handle export and import cargoes also got a boost to a great extent.
According to sources, the port handled about 4.529 million tonnes of cargos last fiscal as against only 0.723 million tonnes just a few years ago (2007-8).
The consignments included 4.427 million tonnes of import cargos and 1.0 million tonnes of exports.
Last year, the amount was 3.544 million tonnes. The growth is 27.75 per cent.
The port earned reveue worth about Tk 1.707 billion during the July-June period of last fiscal (2014-15) as against its expenditure of about Tk 1.105 billion, leaving a profit of Tk 602.298 million in the just- concluded fiscal.
At present, the southern seaport is facing navigability problem for which ships of nine-metre draught cannot get to its jetties.
If these problems can be addressed, the revenue from the port can be increased manifold, said an official of the Ministry of Shipping.
The Mongla Port Authority (MPA), however, is going to undertake a Tk 3.0 billion dredging project to facilitate movement of big vessels and increase navigability of Poshur river and harbour channels aimed at making the port more effective and vibrant.
"Ships with nine-metre draught will be allowed in the port on completion of the project," said Shipping Secretary Shafique Alam Mehdi.
The project is now waiting for approval from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
At present large vessels from different countries can't call at the port due to its lower draft in the Pashur channel, connected with the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans areas.
"When completed, big vessels will be able to enter the port without any hindrance," said Mr Mehdi.
At present the depth of the channel allows up to 6.5-metre-draught vessel to use the port. The port authority is now implementing another project worth about Tk 1.06 billion for dredging the Pashur channel to allow ships with 7.5 drafts.
Besides these, the authorities have also taken up several development projects to maintain the navigability of Pashur river to facilitate entrance of big vessels, increase the berthing and handling capacity as well as expedite the port's overall activities.
The port authority has also undertaken a project at a cost of Tk 875.6 million to procure various instruments like mounted mobile cranes, rail- mounted/ portal cranes, heavy-duty forklift truck to help the loading and unloading of consignments.
At present, the port has 33 berths, including five jetties, seven mooring buoys, 14 anchorages, 44 lighted buoys and five private jetties. The draught of the port channel is now between 7 and 8.5 metres.
Established on September 29, 1950 on 2324.28 acres of land as 'Chalna Port', some 18-km upstream on the Pushur river, it was relocated to the present site, about 48-km south of Khulna city, on December 11, 1954. The port is surrounded as well as well protected by the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
It is now situated at the confluence of Pushur and Mongla rivers and lies about 100 kms north of the Bay of Bengal and connected to the major inland river ports and to the rail terminal in Khulna.
Along with the Kolkata and Haldia ports in India, Mongla and Chittagong in Bangladesh are the principal seaports in the Ganges delta.
The port has trade links with almost all major ports of the world, although vessels arriving here are mostly from Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Europe and North America. Ships rarely come to Mongla from the countries of Latin America or Africa.
The port's chief exports include jute, leather, tobacco, frozen fish and shrimps, while major imports include grains, cement, fertilisers, coal and wood pulp.
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