Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to discuss today (Sunday) the possible ways of saving rivers in and around the capital from land grabbers and ensure a smooth and efficient river transport service within the city, sources have said.
The water bus service, launched by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC), from the city's Gabtoli to Sadarghat failed to attract passengers due to its poor service.
The service with two waterbuses was first launched in August 2010 but it received poor response from passengers. Later, in July 2013, the service was re-launched with four more waterbuses added to the fleet.
But the re-launching of the service has also failed to click.
In most cases, the waterbuses leave the landing stations with very small numbers of passengers on board.
Passengers have complained that the water buses take longer time to reach their destinations. Besides, they have said, the fare is also too high compared to that of other transport services.
Bad smell of river water, fewer numbers of pontoons, and lack of other infrastructural facilities have made the water bus service unattractive.
A senior official at the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) has told the FE that, the banks of rivers around Dhaka city have been grabbed by influential quarters. The concerned government officials have failed to recover those despite repeated attempts.
He has said there is a high-profile inter-ministerial taskforce which looks after the issue. But, since those who have grabbed the river banks are very influential, the taskforce finds itself helpless.
The official has also said the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and deputy commissioners concerned have allotted river banks and foreshores in favour of various industries.
Many of the factory owners went to court when they were asked to remove their structures from the river banks.
As a result, saving rivers from the grabbers has become very tough for the administration, he has said.
Another MoS official said Japan and the Netherlands expressed interest in helping Bangladesh to clean the highly-polluted rivers around the capital.
He also said massive dredging work was needed and removing factories from the river banks was necessary to give the rivers a new lease of life.
The official said the BIWTA and the Ministry of Water Resources were carring out dredging of rivers across the country including those around the capital city. But due to poor and weak arrangements, these could not be done properly.
He said in 1973-74 the river route across the country comprised 20,000 kilometres, which has now shrunk to 3,000-4,000 kilometres because of poor maintenance.
The MoS has been allocated about Tk 4.38 billion in the current fiscal year for carrying out various activities including dredging, procuring dredgers, and buying waterbuses.
Since fiscal year (FY) 2011-12 till the current fiscal, some Tk 14.07 billion was allocated for the MoS to carry out its development activities.
The Ministry of Water Resources has been allocated Tk 6.99 billion in fiscal year 2014-15 for carrying out dredging-related work. During the FY 2011-12 and FY 2014-15, it had Tk 20.92 billion for the same work.
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