Mongla port from now on to unload imported cars

Imported reconditioned cars are to be unloaded at Mongla Port, a step taken for the first time by the government to make it economically viable and effective.
Member (operation) of Mongla Port Authority (MPA) Md Lutfor Rahman quoted Shipping Minister Dr Afsarul Amin as saying that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given consent to modernising the port by providing necessary financial support.
Capital dredging of the port channels will start within a month enabling sea bound vessels to take berth without any risk.
The port will also be provided with rescue vessels, floating cranes and modern appliances required to implement the modernisation plan, Rahman said on Sunday.
He said unloading of imported reconditioned motor vehicles, including cars, micro-buses and pickups, at Mongla port beginning on June 3, will be a landmark in its 49-year history. The port went into operation in 1950.
Mongla port will not only be used to unload imported vehicles as a source of increasing revenue earnings, but also to reduce the space shortage problems at the car sheds of Chittagong port, Rahman said.
Earlier on Saturday, the shipping minister addressed a meeting of the port officials, port users and political leaders at Mongla and identified three main reasons for why the port was lagging behind. These include siltation of the Passur river, financial crisis and misadministration.
The port will get a chance to regain its lost image in the next six months, said Noor-I-Alam Chowdhury Liton, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the shipping ministry.