Govt to buy 20 dredgers

The government is going to procure 20 dredgers for dredging rivers to keep the waterways navigable.

Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday approved a Tk 2,048 crore project to buy the dredgers and other related equipment with the aim of making the rivers lifeline for economy in future.

Of the 20 dredgers, some would be purchased from the local market, and the rest would be imported, said a high official of the planning ministry.

Apart from the dredgers, 20 crane boats, eight tugboats, 20 crew houseboats, eight officers' houseboats, five survey vessels, 3,200 shore pipes and 12 pipe-carrying barges will be bought under the project, according to the proposal.

At present, there are 18 dredgers, and three more will be collected by this year.

The existing government and private dredgers can only dredge 250 lakh cubic metres of waterways each year, while around 632 lakh cubic metres of waterways remain undredged, as per the planning ministry proposal.

The proposal also added that when the new dredgers are available, more 232 lakh cubic metres of waterways could be dredged each year by using those dredgers.

In future, the government is going to lay more emphasis on the river and railway routes than the roads. As part of the plan, more dredgers would be purchased, said the planning ministry official.

Besides, the Ecnec approved a project involving around Tk 37 crore for the development of Sonahat Land Port in Kurigram's Bhurungamari upazila.

According to the proposal, when the project is implemented, the export and import activities between Bangladesh and India will increase.

The Ecnec also gave a nod to five more projects involving a cost of Tk 299 crore.