Tk 50,015cr project to save rivers
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith yesterday unveiled a budgetary allocation of Tk 50,015 crore of a 15-year strategic project for dredging and management of rivers.
“Capital Dredging and River Management Strategy of Bangladesh” would ensure capital dredging and river management throughout the country including the rivers Gorai, Ganges-Padma, Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Meghna, he said.
The government will acquire 17 more dredgers to maintain navigability of inland rivers for an improved transportation system over water, he said.
Of 36 dredgers in operation at presents, 14 are of Bangladesh Water Development Board, seven are of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority and 15 are from the private sector.
Muhith also unveiled a development plan for flood control and drainage system over 124 square kilometers (km) of land in the eastern part of Dhaka city, popularly known as Eastern Bypass, within this fiscal year.
Mentionable, over Tk 5,000 crore was allocated in the 2010-2011 fiscal year for different river dredging projects.
The government already drafted “Bangladesh Water Act, 2010” and took initiatives to amend “Water Resources Planning Act, 1992” for the entire development of water resources, said the minister.
The government also plans to construct 1,760 km of embankment while repairing another 16,870 km. It would construct and repair 9,000 flood control structures, construct 285 km of concrete riverbanks and repair 405 km of existing riverbank protection structures in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, he added.
Measures were already taken to construct Ganges Barrage in the South-Western region of Bangladesh to ensure integrated water management of the Ganges for the region's economic growth, poverty alleviation and environmental conservation, he said.
Other initiatives include protecting landmass, cities and villages from river erosion and 13.47 lakh hectares of land from salinity, setting up two lakh freshwater sources and intensifying activities of Haor Board.
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