Bangladesh wants waterway links with Bhutan, Nepal, India’s Assam
Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday directed the shipping ministry to expanding communications with India’s north-eastern province of Assam as well as Bhutan and Nepal by waterways, planning minister MA Mannan said.
The PM issued the directive while chairing a meeting of the executive committee of the national economic council at the planning commission.
She asked for waterways communications with the neighbours to be further easier.
Mannan said the PM asked the agenises concerned to start discussions with their counterparts to maximize the use of the Brahmaputra River.
She also directed to be careful while dredging rivers so that their banks did not erode.
The PM asked the operators to install most modern scanners to further modernize the Chattogram Port, the Mongla Port and the Payra Port, said Mannan.
He said that the ECNEC also approved seven project proposals, three new and four on-going, involving expenditures to the tune of Tk 4,460.54 crore.
The mewly approved projects include procuring by June 2022 ancillary marine vessels for the Mongla Port at a cost Tk 767.25 crore to enhance container handing capacity to 8.72 lakh 20-foot equivalent units by 2025 from the existing 57,732 TUEs.
The other approved projects include construction of the Mymensingh- Netrakona portion of the border roads , after 1st revised cost of Tk 102.27 crore, Matuail Sanitary Landfill Expansion and Land Development, at the 1st revised additional cost of Tk 819.68 crore, construction of drains for addressing water logging at Rajshahi metropolis, 3rd phase at the 1st revised additional cost of Tk 56.57 crore, capacity strengthening of department of livestock services with Tk 220.59 crore, power grid Network strengthening project under PGCB at the 1st revised additional cost of Tk 2,302.80 crore and establishment of Sylhet,
Lalmonirhat and Barishal institute of livestock science and technology involving the cost of Tk 191.38 crore.
The PM unveiled the cover of the annual report of the Planning Ministry for fiscal 2018-19.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
