Alternative to Shela route will reopen by June

The Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel will reopen by June as an alternative to the Shela river route for water traffic movement, says a BIWTA report.

The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority submitted the report to the parliamentary standing committee on shipping ministry during a meeting yesterday.

The BIWTA also informed the committee that 25 percent of the dredging of the channel had been completed and the navigability would be restored by June for resuming vessels' operation on the route.

An oil tanker sank in the  Shela river inside the Sundarbans on December 9 with 3.58 lakh litres of furnace oil, posing a threat to the forest environment. 

Even though the government banned plying vessels on the route following the incident, it reopened the route few days later. 

The 31-kilometre Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel, which was introduced in 1974, started losing its navigability more than a decade ago due to lack of maintenance. Finally, the channel was closed in 2011 and vessels were forced to take an alternative route through the Shela river.

The meeting yesterday decided to hold a joint meeting of the shipping and environment and forest ministries to discuss the December 9 capsize of the oil tanker and its impact on the environment surrounding the forest.

However, the date of the meeting was not finalised.

Meanwhile, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the standing committee on textile and jute ministry, has requested the shipping ministry to stop plying vessels through the Shela until the UN-Bangladesh joint observation team submits its report to the government.

In a letter, dated January 8, to Rafiqul Islam, chairman of the shipping ministry parliamentary committee, Saber wanted to know whether the Shela river route would be closed after the reopening of the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel.

The standing committee on shipping ministry asked the BIWTA to come up with a reply in the next meeting.