Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury

For the past several weeks, the effects of the country’s gas crisis have been felt everywhere: factories struggling with inadequate pressure in supply lines, filling stations facing long queues, households receiving little or no pipeline gas, and power plants unable to generate at their full capacity.

Bangladesh is investing heavily in ports, with private operators increasingly entering the sector.

Nine workers died after suspected toxic gas exposure on August 14 while working inside LNG carrier MT Rasi at Ferdous Steel Ship Recycling Industries in Chattogram’s Sitakunda upazila.

Dredging creates navigation capacity, not logistics demand. Cargo moves because industries produce, farmers harvest, ports generate trade, and consumers create demand. Rivers merely provide one transport corridor within a much larger logistics ecosystem.

A recent dispute over empty containers at Chattogram port has brought to renewed focus a deeper problem in Bangladesh’s trade logistics system

The upcoming budget implementation process provides an opportunity to recognise that professional freight drivers are not simply transport workers but strategic national assets.

It is a time to reflect on a critical yet often overlooked part of Bangladesh’s maritime system—the seabed and riverbeds that underpin our trade.

The proposed national budget for FY2026-27 deserves recognition for placing logistics and trade facilitation closer to the centre of Bangladesh’s economic transformation agenda.