UNB, Bagerhat :
Good news awaits the people living nearby the Sundarbans as well as its wildlife as the massive shipping now taking place across the rivers in the mangrove forest is expected to come to an end in four months’ time with the reopening of the Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel soon.
Chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Transport Authority (BIWTA) Shamsuddoha Khandaker told the UNB Bagerhat correspondent that the dredging of the 22-km Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel on the Kumarkhali River is going to be completed in four months’ time that will turn the old route of Bangladesh-India shipping navigable again and relieve the mangrove forest of the unwanted oil-tankers and cargo ships.
The biodiversity of the world’s largest mangrove forest is being affected due to the widespread plying of oil-tankers and cargo vessels since the Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel was abandoned for international shipping three and half years back, he said.
Due to the closure of the channel, shipping between India and Bangladesh are taking place through a 90-km channel inside the Sundarbans, threatening its biodiversity, Shamsuddoha observed.
The BIWTA on July 1 this year started the dredging of the 22-km long Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel under a Tk-250 crore project.
Besides dredging about 1.5 crore cubic metres of silt from the river bed – stretching about 300 metres in width and 30 metres in depth along the 22-km channel, the BIWTA is also planning to make the channel straighter than before by cutting off three of its major bends.
Cutting of the three bends will shorten the length of the channel besides making it navigable again, said the BIWTA chairman.
Currently, five dredgers of the BIWTA are working round the clock to restore the channel, he said adding that 15 more dredgers will be added to those to hasten the work.
He also noted that they are also thinking of initiating dredging works for restoring the navigation along the Daudkhali and the Bishna rivers in the district.
Talking to UNB, some local people raised concerns that the dredging of the major river channels, including the Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel, alone will not offer a long-term solution to the siltation problem.
The channel is bound to get silted up again due to numerous illegal embankments laid on the mouth of canals and branches of the river by influential people for shrimp farming, they said adding that all those need to be removed first for having sustainable positive results.
Good news awaits the people living nearby the Sundarbans as well as its wildlife as the massive shipping now taking place across the rivers in the mangrove forest is expected to come to an end in four months’ time with the reopening of the Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel soon.
Chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Transport Authority (BIWTA) Shamsuddoha Khandaker told the UNB Bagerhat correspondent that the dredging of the 22-km Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel on the Kumarkhali River is going to be completed in four months’ time that will turn the old route of Bangladesh-India shipping navigable again and relieve the mangrove forest of the unwanted oil-tankers and cargo ships.
The biodiversity of the world’s largest mangrove forest is being affected due to the widespread plying of oil-tankers and cargo vessels since the Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel was abandoned for international shipping three and half years back, he said.
Due to the closure of the channel, shipping between India and Bangladesh are taking place through a 90-km channel inside the Sundarbans, threatening its biodiversity, Shamsuddoha observed.
The BIWTA on July 1 this year started the dredging of the 22-km long Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel under a Tk-250 crore project.
Besides dredging about 1.5 crore cubic metres of silt from the river bed – stretching about 300 metres in width and 30 metres in depth along the 22-km channel, the BIWTA is also planning to make the channel straighter than before by cutting off three of its major bends.
Cutting of the three bends will shorten the length of the channel besides making it navigable again, said the BIWTA chairman.
Currently, five dredgers of the BIWTA are working round the clock to restore the channel, he said adding that 15 more dredgers will be added to those to hasten the work.
He also noted that they are also thinking of initiating dredging works for restoring the navigation along the Daudkhali and the Bishna rivers in the district.
Talking to UNB, some local people raised concerns that the dredging of the major river channels, including the Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel, alone will not offer a long-term solution to the siltation problem.
The channel is bound to get silted up again due to numerous illegal embankments laid on the mouth of canals and branches of the river by influential people for shrimp farming, they said adding that all those need to be removed first for having sustainable positive results.
