A move is underway to raise the cost of capital dredging of 24 inland river routes by Tk 590 million citing the reason of increase in labour cost and dredging area, officials said.
The project has also sought one-year extension as an adequate number of dredgers are not available for completion of the task, they added.
"Due to the changes in morphology of several river routes, the area of dredging has increased. Besides, the cost of dredging has increased because of rise in labour cost," joint chief of the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) Enayet Hossain told the FE on Sunday.
He said an adequate number of dredgers are not available in private sector for carrying out dredging of the river routes.
As a result, Mr Hossain said, completion of the work is getting delayed forcing the authority concerned to extend the tenure of the project by one more year.
"We are going to float international tender for dredgers for the project so that the task can be completed without further delay," he said.
Presently, some dredgers of foreign companies are also working under the project. Various inland river routes, including the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel, are dredged with dredgers of China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd, said Mr Hossain.
The Tk 18.736 billion project got ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) approval in November 2012 with an aim to keep inland river routes navigable for cargo and passenger transportation.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) is implementing the project which has a target of dredging 1,014 kilometres of river routes by December 2018.
But, officials said, until March this year 95 per cent dredging of Barisal-Jhalakathi-Barguna-Patharghata river route, 95 per cent of Ghasiakhali-Barisal-Kaliganj-Chandpur-Aricha river route, and only 20 per cent of Bhairab Bazar-Lipsha-Chhatak-Sylhet river route could be completed.
Besides, dredging of 30 per cent of Khulna-Gazirhat-Bardia-Manikdah river route, 30 per cent of Syedpur-Sreenagar river route, 25 per cent of Dilalpur-Ghoradia-Chamraghat-Nikli-Aatpara-Netrokona river route, and only 10 per cent of Mirpur-Savar river route could be completed by now.
Mr Hossain in a recent meeting at the MoS mentioned the reasons behind his proposal to raise the cost of the project.
He said dredging at disaster-prone river routes has increased from 13.68 million cubic feet to 19.30 million cubic feet, and dredging area at Mongla-Ghasiakhali route increased to 11.2 million cubic feet from 4.86 million cubic feet.
Mr Hossain said since removal of mud with excavator is incorporated in the project and the daily wages of labourers have increased, the price of dredging of per cubic metre is proposed at Tk 100 from Tk 80 in the past, leading to increase of total cost of the project.
Replying to a query he said the revised development project proposal (RDPP) is being prepared with proposed changes including the cost increase and time extension.
"We will take necessary approval after the RDPP is finalised with MoS consent," Mr Hossain noted. Â
   syful-islam@outlook.com
Capital dredging cost may go up by Tk 590m
Syful Islam | Published: April 19, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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