Mongla Port Earns Record Tk 387.95 Crore Revenue In FY2026, Exceeds Target By Tk 40 Crore

Mongla, Bagerhat, September 23, 2026 — Mongla Port, Bangladesh's second-largest seaport, earned a record revenue of Tk 387.95 crore in the 2025-26 fiscal year, exceeding its target by Tk 40.08 crore. The port had set a revenue collection target of Tk 347.87 crore for the fiscal year.

📊 Rear Admiral Arif Ahmed Mostafa, Chairman of the Mongla Port Authority (MPA), disclosed the figures at a meeting with journalists from Bagerhat and Mongla press clubs at the port authority auditorium on 22 September. He said the port also recorded growth in vessel arrivals, cargo handling and container handling during the fiscal year.

📊 Key FY26 Performance Metrics

• 💰 Revenue: Tk 387.95 crore (target: Tk 347.87 crore, exceeded by Tk 40.08 crore)
• 🚢 Vessel arrivals: 815 vessels
• 📦 Cargo handled: 1.2251 crore metric tonnes (target: 91.50 lakh metric tonnes; +17.66% YoY)
• 📦 Container handling: 29,714 TEUs (target: 25,000 TEUs; +38.49% YoY)
• 🚗 Reconditioned vehicles imported: 12,075 (+496 from previous fiscal year)

💼 Stakeholder Engagement

The chairman said the authority was holding regular consultations with port users, stakeholders, shipping agents, C&F agents, stevedores and businesses to improve port operations. Activities are also continuing through the Internal Business Development Standing Committee to increase vessel arrivals.

This consultative approach is part of a broader effort to position Mongla Port as a viable alternative to Chattogram Port for certain categories of cargo — particularly reconditioned vehicles, bulk grain, cement clinker and project cargo for the southwestern region.

🏢 Mongla's Current Capacity

According to the MPA, Mongla currently has annual handling capacities of:

• 🚢 1,500 vessels
• 📦 15 million metric tonnes of cargo
• 📦 100,000 TEUs of containers
• 🚗 20,000 vehicles

At current utilisation rates, Mongla is operating at roughly 54 per cent of vessel capacity, 82 per cent of cargo capacity, 30 per cent of container capacity, and 60 per cent of vehicle capacity. The significant headroom in container handling and vessel arrivals is a strategic asset for Bangladesh's broader logistics planning.

🏗 Ongoing Expansion Projects

Several projects are underway to further expand the port's capacity, including the procurement of support vessels, upgrading of port facilities and construction of container terminals and yards.

🚢 Support Vessel Procurement Project

Under a support vessel procurement project, the acquisition of:

• 🚢 Two tugboats
• 🚢 A buoy-laying vessel
• 🚢 A search-and-rescue vessel
• 🚢 A pilot mother vessel
• 🚢 A survey-and-research vessel

is at the final stage. The project is scheduled for completion by June 2027.

🏗 Mongla Port Upgrade Project (India LOC-3)

Under the Upgrade of Mongla Port project, financed through India's Line of Credit-3, plans include constructing:

• 🏢 Two container terminals
• 🏢 A container-handling yard
• 🏢 A delivery yard equipped with modern machinery

The chairman said implementation of the projects would create additional employment opportunities in shipping, C&F, stevedoring and other port-related sectors.

🌳 Environmental Initiatives: Protecting The Sundarbans

🧰 A modern waste-management project for collecting waste generated by ships and industries and removing discharged oil was completed in June 2025. The initiative is expected to reduce pollution in the Pashur Channel and surrounding waterways and help protect the Sundarbans — the world's largest mangrove forest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Sundarbans protection angle is particularly important because Mongla Port's location at the confluence of the Pashur River and the Bay of Bengal places it in close ecological proximity to the mangrove ecosystem. Past expansions of port activity had drawn criticism from environmental groups concerned about the impact on the Sundarbans' biodiversity.

⚠ Ongoing Challenges

The chairman identified several ongoing challenges:

• 🚧 Maintaining navigability along the port's 144-kilometre channel — a chronic challenge that requires continuous dredging.
• 🚧 Ensuring safe and pollution-free navigation.
• 🚧 Replacing ageing support vessels.
• 🚧 Developing skilled manpower.
• 🚧 Encouraging greater use of Mongla Port — particularly among shipping lines that default to Chattogram.

🌏 Strategic Ambition: First Calling Port And Direct Feeders

The authority is also working to:

• 💡 Establish Mongla as a direct “first calling port” — meaning international vessels would call at Mongla before any other Bangladeshi port.
• 💡 Increase container vessel arrivals.
• 💡 Introduce direct feeder services to major ports including Singapore.
• 💡 Improve road connectivity along the Khulna-Mongla and Khulna-Bhanga routes.

The first calling port ambition, in particular, would mark a major shift for Mongla — which has historically played a secondary role to Chattogram Port, the country's primary seaport handling the bulk of containerised trade.

🏛 Wider Strategic Context

Rear Admiral Arif Ahmed Mostafa said the government's broader plan is to enhance Mongla Port's capacity and accelerate trade and economic activity in the country's southwestern region. The southwestern region has historically been underserved by logistics infrastructure compared to the Chattogram-Dhaka corridor.

The strategic significance of Mongla's expansion has grown in recent years for several reasons:

• 📍 Padma Bridge — now connecting the southwestern region directly to Dhaka, reducing transit times for cargo moving between Mongla and the capital.
• 📍 Padma Bridge Rail Link — under construction, which will further improve rail-based cargo movement.
• 📍 Payra Port — the country's third seaport, also in the southwestern region, is being developed in parallel.
• 📍 Matarbari Deep-Sea Port — under construction in Cox's Bazar, which will eventually provide deep-draft capacity complementing Chattogram, Mongla and Payra.

💼 Why This Matters For Bangladesh's Export Economy

For Bangladesh's export economy — particularly the RMG sector — Mongla's growth provides a strategic alternative for cargo routing. Currently, over 90 per cent of Bangladesh's containerised trade flows through Chattogram Port, creating chronic congestion and vulnerability to single-point-of-failure risks.

A more capable Mongla Port would:

• 💼 Reduce congestion at Chattogram — particularly for reconditioned vehicles and bulk cargo.
• 💼 Lower logistics costs for southwestern industrial clusters.
• 💼 Provide redundancy in case of disruptions at Chattogram.
• 💼 Support the development of new industrial clusters in the southwestern region.

The Tk 387.95 crore revenue record in FY26 suggests Mongla is on a positive trajectory — though still far behind Chattogram Port's several thousand crore taka annual revenue. Sustaining the growth momentum will depend on the timely completion of the ongoing capacity expansion projects and the success of efforts to attract direct feeder services.

The coming fiscal year will be a critical test of whether Mongla can build on its FY26 performance and translate the record revenue into a more strategic role in Bangladesh's logistics landscape.