Payra Port is losing foreign shipping fast. Only 29 foreign vessels called at the port in fiscal year 2025-26, down from a peak of 123 just two years earlier, according to a report placed before a parliamentary standing committee.
Four years of decline
- 2022-23: 111 foreign ships
- 2023-24: 123 (the peak)
- 2024-25: 85
- 2025-26: 29
What is holding Payra back
The report points to four problems:
- The Rabnabad Channel silts up quickly and needs regular maintenance dredging to stay navigable.
- Customs clearance is handled from the Barishal and Khulna custom houses. The report calls for a full custom house near the port.
- Road access is weak. Much of the Bhanga–Kuakata road is still two lanes; a four-lane upgrade has been approved by ECNEC but not built.
- Tolls at six points on the Dhaka–Payra route add time and cost for cargo.
The figures were presented at a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban chaired by committee chairman Joynul Abedin Faruk.
The slump comes even as the port recently added five new cranes and saw a mother vessel berth directly at its terminal for the first time in nearly two years.
Translated and rewritten from reporting by Prothom Alo (Bangla), 1 November 2026.
Photo: Representative image of cargo ships; not Payra Port. Kritzolina / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
