The port formally began operations in 1862. Narayanganj was the principal gateway to
Dacca during
British rule. The port had shipping links with the major ports of
Bengal,
Assam and
Burma, including
Dacca,
Calcutta,
Chittagong,
Akyab,
Rangoon, Cachar and Sylhet. It became a center of trade in jute, timber, salt, textiles, oil, cotton, tobacco, pottery, seeds and betel nut. The British government declared it as a "Tax Free Port" in 1879. Rally Brothers & Co. was the first company to begin the jute business in the port of Narayanganj. Numerous British companies set up trading posts in the area and used middlemen, called
beparis, to source raw jute from the hinterland. A
chamber of commerce was set up in 1904. In 1907–08, 20 companies were engaged in the
jute trade of Narayanganj, of which 18 were European. Hindu merchants opened several cotton mills in the 1920s, including the Dhakeshwari Cotton Mill, the Chittaranjan Cotton Mill and the Laxmi Narayan Cotton Mill. In 1950, the
Adamjee Jute Mills, the world's largest jute mill, was established near the port. The government of Pakistan developed the modern port in June 1955.
Kamal Hossain served as a lawyer for the English-owned and Narayanganj-based Rally Brothers company. The present-day Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) in Bangladesh has its roots in the Narayanganj Chamber of Commerce (NCC) established in 1904. ==Port facilities==