Shipping Ministry is going to introduce ‘Real Time Dredge Monitoring System’ to monitor dredging activities for bringing more transparency in dredging.
This system (with five dredgers, including one dredger base station) will be completely operational within the next one month, said a press release here.
A meeting of Annual Development Programme (ADP) was held on Monday of the Ministry’s meeting room here.
State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury presided over the meeting. He communicates directly with officials stationed in Dhaka and officials from outside Dhaka through Zoom Apps.
State Minister said R-T Dredge Monitoring System will reveal more transparency of what is being done under water, especially in the case of dredging, and how much dredging is being done. He also said it is easy to know whether the dredging is being done in terms of hours, days, width, depth and alignment. The dredger billing system will be much easier, he added.
Shipping Secretary Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, Head of various organizations under the ministry and Project Directors were present at meeting.
The press release said as a pilot project of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) the real time dredge monitoring system is being monitored online directly from the meeting room of the ministry.
In the first stage the system will be introduced at Shimulia Ghat of Munshigonj with five dredgers including dredger base station. Then from time to time the R-T Monitoring System will be introduced with 45 dredgers of BIWTA. A total of cost for launching the system with five dredgers including the Dredger Base Station at Shimulia ghat is TK. 2,47,46,850. The meeting informed that Trimble Civil Engineering and Construction, an American company is doing the work. Dredging activities of any dredger with R-T monitoring system within 10 km diameter of the base station can be monitored remotely.
