The World Bank holds out US$280 million in soft loan to pave the way for enhanced inland water-transport services along Dhaka-Chittagong corridor which is also a protocol route for Indo-Bangladesh trade and transit, officials said.
They said the country office of the Bank on June 13 confirmed the regional IDA (International Development Association) project on the Dhaka-Chittagong IWT (inland waterway transport) Corridor by forwarding an aid-memoir.
Its confirmation of offer on the funding for the project came after fielding a preparation mission last month to discuss the overall plan.
Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Mozammel Haque told the FE that the World Bank will conduct a feasibility study on the proposed project by December.
If everything is found in right place, the project will be submitted before the bank's board in mid-March next and the work will start sometime next June, he said.
Mr Haque said on completion of the project, the bank will come up with another dollop of $300 million for funding the project for dredging and development of other river routes of the country, including the one connecting Ashuganj river port, and Dhaka-Narayangangj route.
He said the country's rivers need capital dredging to keep adequate navigability for the plying of vessels. "The navigability problem of inland river routes will be over once the said projects are completed."
The aid-memoir said the thriving Bangladesh's waterways already providing service to more than 50 per cent of the country's cargo traffic and one quarter of all passenger traffic. "The objective of the project is to increasing these numbers as well as to open up service for container traffic.'
It said Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Ashuganj routes are not only needed for passenger transport but also for Bangladeshi cargos that need to be moved between Dhaka and Chittagong for domestic consumption and for international export.
"They are topmost priority routes for Bangladesh-Indian bilateral route, and for Indian transit goods to move between Kolkata port and landlocked states of Northeast India," the memo adds to justify the dredging plans.
As designed, the project aims at an increase in the certainty of advertised water depth in given channels on the DCC (Dhaka-Chittagong Corridor) river route for IWT, decrease in the number of accidents and safety incidents on inland waterways along the DCC, development of a framework to promote container movement for cargo along the DCC, increase in the reliability and availability of aids to navigations, river-port terminals built with women-friendly facility, and identifying the obstacles to movement of containers.
Under the project steps will be taken to improve inland waterway maintenance by addressing a few specific problem spots and through provision of visual aids to navigation for class-one routes on the Dhaka-Chittagong IWT corridor, including branches to Ashuganj, Narayanganj and Barisal and the main river-crossing routes.
Besides, shelters for vessels in adverse weather conditions will be constructed at five locations in the downstream sections of the country's river system.
Each shelter will be able to accommodate five vessels with a 5,000DWT (deadweight tonnage) capacity and a number of smaller vessels and country boats.
As part of navigation-safety improvement, the project will arrange seafarer training, establishment of a search-and-rescue organisation, and improve hydrographical survey system.
Some $50 million will be spent on improvement of selected inland waterway terminals. Besides, several landing stations will also be improved under the project.
The World Bank, according to the aid memoir, also wants to fund Ashuganj container and general cargo terminal under the project. It may cost some $65 million.
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