Dredging, excavation of 30 Ctg canals to end in Feb
Dredging of Chaktai canal is going on in full swing at Bakalia in the port city.Photo: STAR
Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) has planned to complete the dredging and the excavation work by early February to widen around 30 canals to rid the city of waterlogging that causes immense suffering to the city dwellers and loss of properties frequently. The CCC is using 10 sophisticated dredging machines (excavators) for faster completion of the work to reduce the project cost significantly, sources said. The city corporation took the project worth Tk 4 crore in December 2007 with the use of dredging machines to bring down the project cost almost to the half, CCC sources said. Dredging and excavation of Mohesh Khal near Police Line at Halishahar, Rampur Khal at Rampur, Bahar Khal at Saraipara, Shital Jharna at Panchlaish, Bamunshahi Khal at Chandgaon, Gohona Chhara at Halishahar, Birza Khal at West Syed Shah Road and different points of Chaktai Khal are almost completed while the work at other canals are expected to be done by the first week of February, the sources added. “We are dredging the canals up to 12 to 15 feet deep and 20 to 30 feet wide on an average,” said Superintendent Engineer Mohammad Abu Saleh of CCC Division 1. He said they fear a bit problem in a few areas where the canals do not have sufficient passage to move the excavators that require some 10ft to 12ft to reach the canals. The CCC sources said the banks of the canals at many points are still occupied illegally that need immediate eviction while some have very narrow banks requiring acquisition of land for expansion for maintenance regularly. To reap the benefit of the ongoing work, the CCC officials said construction of walkways along the banks is needed to protect the canals from the encroachers and protection wall to save them from getting silted up or filled up. CCC acting Chief Engineer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said sluice gates and tidal regulators are also needed at the canal mouth to stop entry of tidal water that inundate many city areas frequently. He said they briefed LGRD Adviser Md Anwarul Iqbal on the matters when he visited the junction of the Mohesh Khal and the Karnaphuli river in the Saltgola area on Saturday. He said the adviser has asked them for preparing a project proposal as soon as possible and assured them of the government support in this regard. There are 144 canals and 418 drains to carry away rainwater and sewages to the river Karnaphuli and the bay. The drains and canals become silted up or filled up with mud for lack of proper and regular maintenance, sources said. Besides, the encroachers contribute a lot to fill up the drains and canals, they added. The canals and drains can't cope with the heavy flow of rainwater during heavy rainfall, causing inundation, they said. CCC engineers and officials blamed the indiscriminate dumping of garbage in the drains and water bodies for aggravating the situation. They emphasised the need to stop dumping waste into water bodies and raising awareness among the people in this regard to help maintain normal flow of water through the canals and drains.
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