A cargo vessel loaded with coal sank near Mongla Port after colliding with an oil tanker late on Monday night, 26 October. All nine crew members survived.
What happened
The lighter vessel MV Phulbari, owned by IRS International, was carrying about 1,200 tonnes of coal it had loaded at Hiran Point from the foreign ship MV Ias Jupiter. It was heading to Badamtola in Dhaka when it was struck by the oil tanker MT Jannatul Ferdous in the Sundarikotha area.
The vessel sank soon after. The nine crew swam to a nearby cargo ship and were unharmed.
Port traffic not disrupted
Commodore Md Shafiqul Islam Sarkar, Member (Harbour and Marine) of the Mongla Port Authority, confirmed the incident. He said the vessel went down outside the Pashur Channel, so navigation in the port’s main channel was not affected. The owner is arranging salvage.
Collisions involving lighter vessels are a recurring concern on Bangladesh’s busy coastal and river routes, where large numbers of small ships carry cargo from outer anchorages to inland destinations.
Translated and rewritten from reporting by Dhaka Times (Bangla), 27 October 2026.
Photo: Representative image of Mongla Port. Hiroki Ogawa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
