The Mongla-Ghasiakhali river route was excavated in the 70’s Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and facilitates waterway transport of imported goods in large vessels from the sea to Mongla Port. In the eighties, the mouth of the channel was closed due to construction of polders for shrimp hatcheries. Since 2001 the channel started to face serious navigational crisis and in 2010 the channel completely dried up suspending safe operations of ships. To keep the Mongla port operational, capital dredging was done to maintain the navigability of the canal. Later the canal became functional again in 2018. Significant sedimentation occurred thereafter an the entrances of the canal and can only be solved by costly maintenance dredging and a more sustainable and long term solution could be, next to enhancing the navigation conditions and stability of the banks, introduce one or two ship locks on the canal. BWITA has requested USAID to examine the feasibility of such a long-term solution support the upstream preparation of relevant studies in anticipation of possible project implementation and called for proposals for consultancy services for conducting a conceptual study on upgrading of the Mongla-Ghasiakhali Canal.

Delta Context is leading the project and is involved in all the tasks such as: data collection, river studies (hydraulic, morphological,  geotechnical), traffic studies, inland waterway transport and engineering studies. Specific focus is provided to supervision of the hydraulic and morphological analysis and design of hydraulic structures, development of alternatives to be studied, traffic data and toll revenue data analysis, performing an Socioeconomic Cost-Benefit Analysis (SECBA).