Ghashiakhali route reopens on trial basis

The government has reopened the Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel after about five years on a trial basis to divert traffic from a key Sundarbans river route. Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan on Thursday said ships would use the international route until June this year. Twenty-one ships used the channel on the first day of its reopening.  It was closed in 2010 after Mongla's Nala River and Rampal's Kumar River filled up. Since then BIWTA has been using the Shela River inside the Sundarbans as an alternate route.    — bdnews24.com