Barisal river port dev project to begin soon

A Tk 18 crore project will start soon for the development the Barisal river port removing uncertainty over the implementation of the port development project after procrastination of over a century since 1964.
According to the latest decision of the ECNEC, the project was finally approved on October 14, this year.
A tender of Tk 3 core for construction of a modern terminal building at the port will be floated in the next month, official sources said.
The project will start after laying foundation by the shipping minister in the next month and will be ended on June 30, 2011 by changing the total scenario of the port including the standard of the service and modernisation of the facilities, said Zulhasuddin Ahmed, project director and superintending engineer of Barisal BIWTA.
More than 150 years old Barisal River Port was the headquarters of IGN and RSN companies in British period. Pakistan River Steamer Services (PRS) handed over it to the then EPIWTA in 1958.
However, the development project was taken in 1964 for the five major river ports of the eastern region of Pakistan including Dhaka, Barisal, Chandpur, Khulna and Narayanganj.
But the project was not implemented in Barisal due to unknown reason and only a tin-shed structure was built in 1980.
During the past four-party alliance government, a project for construction of a modern river terminal and jetties in Barisal river port involving Tk 9.5 crore was taken in 2003.
A revised project of about Tk 20 crore was prepared and placed before the Water Resources Ministry in 2006 and sent to the Planning Commission in August 2007.
The project was ordered to be revised again and later approved by the Planning Commission in July 2008 for two-year tenure at a cost of Tk 17.6 crore.
However, procrastination was created in implementation of the project after emergence of shoals in front of the old port areas, port officials said.
Then it was finally approved by ECNEC on October 14, this year under the revised Annual Development Project.