Bangladesh News

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has proposed an embankment project to protect the rivers surrounding the capital from encroachment and to sustain the drive against river encroachers.

“I have already sent a proposal to the shipping ministry to undertake a project by the Water Development Board under water resources ministry,” said BIWTA Chairman Md Abdul Mannan Howlader.

They will also send another proposal for constructing walkway, landing and other facilities, and taking tree plantation programme along the riverbanks.

“We hope to send a Tk 100 crore draft project pro forma to the ministry by this week,” said Howlader.

Meanwhile, the anti-encroachment drive got delayed, as the BIWTA officials have been engrossed in leasing out the passenger and cargo landing stations for the last three weeks.

BIWTA officials said that they would start eviction drive against the encroachers of Buriganga by the end of July.

“We have identified 113 encroachers of the Buriganga and it will take a couple of days to finalise the list,” said BIWTA Deputy Director Saiful Islam.

The list will include around 150 illegal structures and encroachments on Buriganga, said Islam.

The rivers Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakhya span around 110 kilometres of the capital city.

Of the total length, at least 50 to 60 kilometres have to be demarcated with embankment and walkways to protect the river from encroachment, said Howlader while talking to The Daily Star.

A total of 35 kilometres of riverbanks surrounding Dhaka should have walkways as demarcation particularly the areas vulnerable to encroachers, he said. Of this, 21 kilometres have already been demarcated.

BIWTA is now implementing a project to build seven kilometres walkway along Buriganga stretching from Shyampur to Dharmaganj.

Meanwhile, the land ministry and Directorate of Land Records and Survey have already engaged the deputy commissioners concerned to ascertain the boundaries of the rivers in keeping with the recent High Court directives in this regard.

On removal of the heavily built foundations, guide walls and earth piled up illegally in the rivers, BIWTA chairman said that he had instructed the officials concerned to calculate the possible costs for doing the work. Earlier, the authorities had kept these issues out of the purview of the eviction drives in Turag and Shitalakhya.