Visit the rake suction boat, communicate with Chinese engineers face to face, personally experience the first perspective of cockpit construction... A Chinese dredging project in Bangladesh's Mungra Port recently welcomed a group of special guests, including more than 400 local students from Bangladesh's Khulna and workers from the Mungra Port Authority.

    "It's a rare opportunity to visit the rake suction boat, especially for me as an engineering student. It's a great learning opportunity." Abdullah, a student at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, told Xinhua News Agency.

    The channel dredging project contracted by China Civil Engineering Group Co., Ltd. is the largest dredging project of the port at present, with a total length of 23.4 kilometers. This project deeply attracted visitors, who carefully understood the work content of ocean dredging engineering, and explored the design concept and working principle of ocean engineering ships.

    The project will start in 2020, and after completion, the main waterway of Mengla Port can meet the needs of large merchant ships with a draft of 10 meters to enter and exit the port during the tide, which is of great significance to improving the port's handling capacity, ensuring the smooth entry of commercial ships into Mengla Port, and promoting the economic prosperity and development of Southwest Bangladesh.

    "The efforts of the Chinese companies are commendable. Four dredging operations have been successfully completed and the inner harbour is now being dredged. We are confident that the Chinese companies will be able to achieve the set objectives with high quality." Mungra Port Authority joint secretary Rahman said.

    Based on the idea of "giving people fish is better than giving people fish", the project department strives to solve the blockage of Mungra Port in a more scientific and lasting way through cooperation with local colleges and institutions.

    Guo Zhipei, head of the hydraulic sector of China Civil Engineering Group Co., LTD. Bangladesh Company, said that sedimentation was found to be very serious in the process of channel dredging, and the port has to spend a lot of financial and material resources for channel maintenance and dredging every year, and it is also facing the risk of silting again after dredging. In order to solve this problem systematically, the company began to conduct scientific research with Khulna University of Engineering and Technology and Mungra Port from 2019, hoping to reduce dredging investment and ensure smooth navigation through river regulation.

    Shah Jahan, a professor at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, said that Chinese companies have repeatedly supported academic forums in Khulna region and scientific research cooperation projects of Khulna University of Engineering and Technology to share construction experience and technology, which is a model for foreign companies to practice social responsibility, and hopes to carry out more in-depth exchanges and cooperation with Chinese companies and scientific research institutions.

    Abdullah said he was very happy to learn that the two sides are cooperating in the field of scientific research. "This visit has planted a seed of Bangladesh-China friendship and common development in my heart, and I hope I can join in the cooperation related to waterway dredging and ocean engineering in the future."