The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) is going to procure 20 more dredgers without any need assessment, official sources said.
The move to collect a number of dredgers at a time under one project has raised questions among the officials of the ministry of shipping (MoS). The ministry recently asked BIWTA to carry out a need assessment before procuring the dredgers.
Sources said BIWTA recently sent a development project proposal (DPP) of 'Procurement of Dredgers with Ancillary Equipment and Capital Dredging in Inland Waterways' project to MoS.
In the DPP, BIWTA proposed procurement of 20 dredgers of different sizes to carry out dredging in the inland waterways. However, the authority did not include any need assessment report with it, which has raised question whether such a big number of dredgers are presently needed or not.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan recently told the FE that BIWTA once had seven dredgers, and the number is going to increase to 21 soon. He, however, said sufficient trained manpower, needed for the organisation, could not be created.
Officials said BIWTA bought eight dredgers in the recent past. Three more dredgers are in the pipeline.
Sources said in the DPP, BIWTA has proposed prices of various items for collection, which are much higher compared to the prices of the items used in the ongoing projects as well as their present market prices.
"The prices of items mentioned in the DPP should be similar to those of the ongoing projects and present market prices," the MoS letter mentioned.
The DPP also mentioned the need for buying seven vehicles worth Tk 3.60 billion for the project. But it did not state the logic why such a big number of vehicles will be needed for the project.
BIWTA is presently implementing a capital dredging project that included dredging of 53 river routes. In the first phase of the project capital dredging is being carried out in 24 river routes.
When contacted BIWTA chairman Dr Samsuddoha Khondaker told the FE Sunday that they need more dredgers to perform dredging in inland waterways to keep the rivers navigable.
He said anyone can do the need assessment of the dredgers, if statistics are produced. "Our rivers carry 25 million tonnes of sand each year, of which 15 million tonnes get stuck on the river beds. One can easily calculate how many dredgers are needed to remove the sand."
Mr Khondaker said the dredging work needs to be carried out soon to keep the rivers navigable. "Otherwise our rivers will become unusable to carry goods by ships."
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