Govt to build dried fish processing centre in Cox’s Bazar
The government is going to establish a dried fish processing centre in the southeastern coastal district of Cox's Bazar by spending nearly Tk 200 crore in order to facilitate increased production of the popular food for both local and export markets.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday gave its go-ahead to the plan, which also bears the objective of creating jobs for 4,600 fishing-dependent families.
Once established at Khurushkul area, the plant will have a 14,000-tonne annual production capacity alongside storage and marketing facilities for local and international markets, according to a brief of the Ecnec meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"This project will play a role in increasing export earnings along with helping meeting demand for fish protein in the country," said the planning commission in its opinion.
The move comes amidst a gradual increase in the export of dried fish over the years.
In fiscal 2009-10 the export amount was 622 tonnes. The shipment figure rose to 2,339 tonnes in fiscal 2018-19, showed data from the Department of Fisheries.
Under the initiative, Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) will build a fish landing shed, a four-storied laboratory, an associated office, a training-focused dormitory and a cold storage of 100-tonne capacity.
The state agency will also establish 380 mechanical dryers, 350 of which will be of the greenhouse type, a packaging factory and 36 sales centres by December 2023. The project will begin from January 2021.
"Currently, fish are dried in an unhygienic manner in many areas. We will make dried fish in a hygienic manner in the processing industry," said Rashid Ahmed, director (finance) of the BFDC.
The Ecnec also approved a Tk 2,500 crore project to establish a 400-kV Aminbazar-Maowa-Mongla Transmission Line.
It would conduct electricity from coal-fired power plants at Rampal and Payra in the southern districts and some of that from the Rooppur nuclear power plant in the northern district of Pabna.
The cost of the project was initially estimated to be Tk 1,356 crore. Now it has risen by 85 per cent as the route of the under-construction transmission line has changed while its length also increased.
Now, power would be transmitted from Mongla to Aminbazar via a Gopalganj sub-station, according to the project brief.
The project implementing agency, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, would need to use 209 towers of higher elevation on the route to help the transmission line make it over the approach road of the Padma bridge, railways and flyovers.
Of the total cost of the project, scheduled to be completed by December 2021, Asian Development Bank will provide Tk 1,270 crore as loan. The government will bear the rest.
The Ecnec also gave the go-ahead to a Tk 560 crore project to protect Tk 4,344 crore-worth properties from the erosion of the Jamuna riverbank in some localities of Kazipara upazila under the northern district of Sirajganj.
The properties include residences, agricultural land, educational and religious institutions, bazars, union parishad office, health complex as well as public and private infrastructure.
The project, scheduled to be completed by June 2023, also aims to protect a flood protection embankment to protect Sirajganj district from flooding.
At the meeting, the prime minister gave a directive to formulate a permanent/long-term plan for dredging in order to ensure navigability of rivers, the erosion of which makes thousands of people homeless every year.
The premier suggested carrying out capital and maintenance dredging on a regular basis based on the plan, said Senior Secretary to Planning Division Md Ashadul Islam.
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