The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) will start an eviction drive against encroachment on the River Turag today (Tuesday), an official said.
"We will launch a drive against encroachment on the River Turag on Tuesday," BIWTA joint director (Port) AKM Arif Uddin told the FE.
He said the drive will start from Dhaka Uddayn at Basila in the capital.
The government has taken an initiative to recover grabbed lands on the banks of the rivers Buriganga, Turag and Shitalakshya.
Indiscriminate encroachment on the river banks by a section of grabbers is posing a great threat to the biodiversity and hampering smooth navigability in the water bodies.
Shipping Minister Khaled Mahmud Chowdhury at a meeting with the officials of the departments concerned recently strictly directed them to carry out the drives to restore the origin channels of the River Buriganga.
And following the directive of the minister, the BIWTA, which is under the ministry of shipping, carried out a number of eviction drives against encroachment on the River Burigana from January to the first week of March 2019.
BIWTA has carried out eviction drive in four phases so far on the banks of the Buriganga.
The first phase continued on January 29-31, the second phase on February 6-8, third phase on February 12-14 and the fourth phase on February 18-20.
It demolished a total of 1,800 illegal structures at Basila, Kamrangirchar, Sadarghat and some other parts of the capital.
The BIWTA has taken a construction project worth Tk 8.48 billion to be implemented on the recovered lands of the rivers.
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