UNB, Dhaka :
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has set a target to restore the navigability of about 18,000 kilometres of waterways in the coming years, aiming to ensure smooth movement of water vessels, said its chairman Commodore Mohammad Mozammel Haque on Wednesday.
“We’ve already restored the navigability of 1,000 kilometers of river routes through dredging in the last one year,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop at city’s BRAC Centre Inn.
BIWTA and the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) jointly organised the
‘National Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on Environmental and Social Assessment Studies for the proposed Bangladesh Regional Waterways Transport Project.’ The BIWTA chairman said once Bangladesh had about 24,000 kilometers of river routes, but it has declined to about 6,000 kilometres during monsoon while about 3,900 kilometres during the dry season.
The BIWTA is currently implementing 24 dredging projects and many other schemes, including the Bangladesh Regional Waterways Transport Project. “If those are implemented, we’ll be able to restore the navigability of rivers we have lost.” Mozammel said Bangladesh experiences ay accidents each year due to extreme climatic events like cyclone and storm. To safe the lives of passengers on river routes, he said, the BIWTA will set up six vessel shelter stations on different river routes.
In his power-point presentation, IWM executive director Prof Dr M Monwar Hossain said Dhaka-Chittagong corridor and adjoining routes provides more than 70 percent of total IWT output.
About 2 lakh passengers traveling every day through these routes, he said the movement of break bulk cargo and POL (Petroleum Oil and Lubricant) largely depends on the routes.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has set a target to restore the navigability of about 18,000 kilometres of waterways in the coming years, aiming to ensure smooth movement of water vessels, said its chairman Commodore Mohammad Mozammel Haque on Wednesday.
“We’ve already restored the navigability of 1,000 kilometers of river routes through dredging in the last one year,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of a workshop at city’s BRAC Centre Inn.
BIWTA and the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) jointly organised the
‘National Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on Environmental and Social Assessment Studies for the proposed Bangladesh Regional Waterways Transport Project.’ The BIWTA chairman said once Bangladesh had about 24,000 kilometers of river routes, but it has declined to about 6,000 kilometres during monsoon while about 3,900 kilometres during the dry season.
The BIWTA is currently implementing 24 dredging projects and many other schemes, including the Bangladesh Regional Waterways Transport Project. “If those are implemented, we’ll be able to restore the navigability of rivers we have lost.” Mozammel said Bangladesh experiences ay accidents each year due to extreme climatic events like cyclone and storm. To safe the lives of passengers on river routes, he said, the BIWTA will set up six vessel shelter stations on different river routes.
In his power-point presentation, IWM executive director Prof Dr M Monwar Hossain said Dhaka-Chittagong corridor and adjoining routes provides more than 70 percent of total IWT output.
About 2 lakh passengers traveling every day through these routes, he said the movement of break bulk cargo and POL (Petroleum Oil and Lubricant) largely depends on the routes.
