Govt reopens Shela route to navigation

FE Team | Published: January 07, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The government has reopened the Shela River route inside the Sundarbans to traffic giving in to the demand of vessel operators, reports bdnews24.com.
An inter-ministry meeting, chaired by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, on Tuesday decided to keep the route open until the Mongla-Ghoshiakhali Channel was revived.
A media statement from the ministry said the route would be open from Wednesday (today).
Minister Khan last month shot down an environment ministry proposal to permanently shut the route.
The move is likely to trigger concerns over the fragile ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest, home to the endangered Royal Bengal Tigers and rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins.
The UN has recommended closing the route after an oil-tanker sank there last month.
FE report adds: Vessel workers earlier threatened to go on a countrywide strike for an indefinite period from today (Wednesday) unless the authorities concerned open the Shela River route to navigation.
Bangladesh Noujan Shramik Federation, a group of six waterways vessel workers' unions, gave the 24-hour ultimatum to the government at a press briefing at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Tuesday, warning that they would go for an indefinite strike from midnight past Wednesday to realise their demand.
"The government should allow traffic through Shela River in a controlled way until the reopening of Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel to navigation," the federation's secretary general Chowdhury Ashiqul Alam told reporters.
He said the government imposed restriction on movement of vessels through Shela River since December 09 last following the collision of two tankers, spilling more than 350,000 litres of furnace oil in the Shela river in the Sundarbans.
"Since then thousands of workers of about 600 tankers and ships loaded with goods and oil had been stranded at the two ends of the 71- kilometer route -- at Bogi and Mongla respectively," he said.
For the last 26 days the ill-fated workers had been passing their days in an inhuman condition due to scarcity of drinking and bathing water, food and treatment, Ashiqul Alam said adding that owners of the stranded vessels did not pay the workers their wages and other allowances.
He said the workers had been pushed to an edge as their earlier requests brought no fruits.
The unions are Bangladesh Launch Labour Association, Bangladesh Lighter Workers Union, Bangladesh Fishing Trawlers Workers Union, Bangladesh Cargo Trawler Workers Union, Rangamati Hill Tracts Vessel Workers Union and Jahaji Sramik Sangha.
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