Posted on December 8, 2025
The current depth at Rabnabad channel is now 0.2 percent below the level recorded before dredging began back in 2020. Water-resource specialists say Payra sits in a naturally silt-heavy zone and repeated dredging cannot deliver lasting results.
Payra Port’s Rabnabad Channel reported an average depth of six metres in December 2020. Two separate dredging projects were then launched to deepen the channel. The roughly BDT 70 billion cost was backed by Chattogram Port (CPA)’s donation and central bank reserve financing. Average depth reached 10.5 metres in 2023 through regular dredging. However, depth began falling as soon as dredging ended. Yesterday, December 6, 2025, it stood at 5.8 metres. Payra Port Authority (PPA) had already warned that depth would drop to this level in December. The current depth at Rabnabad channel is now 0.2 percent below the level recorded before dredging began back in 2020.
The shipping ministry has moved to launch yet another project to raise Rabnabad’s average depth. The proposal sets out new dredging across the channel’s 75-kilometre stretch and includes the purchase of two dredgers. The project carries an estimated cost of BDT 46.62 billion.
Water-resource specialists oppose fresh large-scale investment in Payra’s channel. They argue that Rabnabad is highly silt-prone. Silt would need constant and costly removal, which is unsuited to a developing economy. They recommend treating Payra as a small, shallow port rather than pushing ambitious expansion plans.
Shipping ministry sources say that an emergency maintenance dredging project ran from November 2020 to June 2022 under the title “Emergency Maintenance Dredging of the Rabnabad Channel (Inner and Outer)”. Its BDT 4.13 billion cost was funded through CPA’s donation.
A second scheme covered dredging and maintenance from April 2021 to April 2024. It cost BDT 65.35 billion. Bangladesh financed the work from its foreign exchange reserves. The government at the time invested through the Bangladesh Infrastructure Development Fund, created in 2021 with central bank reserves. By mid-2023, average depth at the channel reached 10.5 metres. But once dredging stopped, depth began falling as well. Officials now expect an average of 5.8 metres in December, available only during high tide. Port officials say Rabnabad’s current depth cannot support large vessels.
A vessel carrying one thousand TEUs, Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units, needs an average channel depth of 8.7 metres to enter a port. Ships carrying four thousand TEUs require 12.5 metres. Rabnabad Channel has now slipped below six metres, which means large vessels can no longer berth at Payra. Cargo from larger ships is being discharged onto smaller lighter vessels.
Payra handles coal imports for two 1,320-megawatts power plants in Patuakhali. The port also receives limestone, spun piles, cement clinker, stone chips, plant machinery and project cargo, large stones, dredging equipment, crushed stone, PHP pipe piles, OPC clinker, and LPG. Officials say reliance on lighter vessels for all cargo, including coal for the power plants, has pushed up import costs.
Bangladesh China Power Company Limited (BCPCL) says reduced navigability has added six dollars per tonne to coal imports. A senior BCPCL official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plant had relied on lighter vessels for a year because the channel lacks adequate depth. Lightering adds about six dollars per tonne to coal costs, which feeds directly into generation expenses and raises overall production costs.
Water-resource specialists say Payra sits in a naturally silt-heavy zone and repeated dredging cannot deliver lasting results. River and water specialist Ainun Nishat said Payra’s depth is adequate for small vessels, but maintaining it as a deep-sea port would require continuous dredging that is expensive. Speaking to Bonik Barta, he added, “Even advanced economies avoid such costly dredging. Bangladesh should not commit to perpetual high-cost dredging. Payra should be treated as a small and shallow port.”
The Payra Port opened in 2013 as Bangladesh’s third seaport and has depended on capital and maintenance dredging from the start. Repeated attempts to reach the shipping ministry’s adviser, Brig. Gen. (retd.) M Sakhawat Hussain, for comment on the proposed new dredging project and its rationale drew no response yesterday.
Shipping Secretary Nurun Nahar Chowdhury was also contacted and she advised inquiries to be directed to Payra Port Authority.
Commodore Mohammad Jamal Uddin Chowdhury, the port authority’s member for harbour and marine operations, told Bonik Barta, “A capital dredging project finished in 2024. The channel then supported vessels drawing 10.5 metres. A 220-metre vessel, 34 metres wide and carrying nearly 30,000 tonnes of cargo, arrived at that time. This proves that large ships can enter Rabnabad Channel. That was a capital dredging project. Depth would not have fallen so sharply if regular maintenance dredging had continued.”
He added that a new dredging project is awaiting approval from ECNEC. Once approved, contractors will be appointed. He said estimation showed depth could return to 10.5 metres within three to four months of contractor mobilisation.
