Govt to spend Tk 2,052cr to smoothen river navigability

The Ministry of Shipping has taken a project to purchase 20 suction dredgers and construct five dredger bases to ensure smooth navigability of river routes in the country.

The ministry has sent second amendment of the project – Purchasing 20 dredgers with necessary Machineries and Equipment – to the Planning Commission for approval seeking a year extension, a senior official of the planning ministry told The Business Post.

However, he said the Shipping Ministry has cut Tk 35 crore from the project cost as it excluded the construction of two dredger base in Jamalpur and Madaripur.

The cost of the project is now estimated at Tk 2,052.99 crore which will be funded from the state coffer.

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will implement the project by June 2022, according to the revised development project proposal.

The construction of two dredgers base has been excluded from the proposal as BIWTA has no own available land in these areas.

Five dredger bases will be constructed under the project at Narayanganj, Barishal, Khulna, Aricha and Shimulia.

At the same time, BIWTA will procure 24 crane boats, 20 cru-huge boats, 12 survey boats, five inland survey vessels, and other necessary equipment and machineries along with constructing five residential and non-residential buildings.

Mamun Al Rashid, member of Physical Infrastructure Division of Planning Commission, said dredging of the rivers were essential for smooth navigability and protection of inland river routes and the project will support the ongoing dredging activities in the country.

“We have held a project evaluation committee meeting on the project and decided to cancel allocation for foreign training programme of officials in abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic in the world. We cleared the project for approval,” Rashid also said.

According to the BIWTA, new river routes will be launched from Dhaka to Gazipur and towards the country’s southern region.

The government’s master dredging plan aims to restore the navigability of 10,000km river routes by shortest timeframe. Several dredging projects of the BIWTA are ongoing on 53 rivers of the country.

Earlier, the ECNEC approved the project on August 11 in 2015 with estimating cost of Tk 2,047.99 crore.

The project was scheduled to be completed by December 2019. Later, the first amendment of the project was approved by the planning minister

with an estimated cost Tk 2,087.99 crore and scheduled to be completed by June 2021.