BIWTA says instead of Meghna, Bangladesh needs dredging at the Gomti River
Ali Asif Shawon: The Indian government has recently said that it will fund 80% of the total cost of dredging work in the Meghna River on the Bangladesh side to operationalize the Indo-Bangla waterway connecting the Gomti River.
Tripura Chief Minister (CM) Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday said that 20% of the cost would have to be borne by the host country Bangladesh.
However, authorities in Bangladesh claimed that they have not received any proposals in this connection.
They said there was no need for dredging the Meghna river as it had enough draft for navigation. Instead, Bangladesh needs dredging at the Gomti River which connects the Meghna river.
On Thursday evening, Commodore Golam Sadeq, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), told Dhaka Tribune: “We have already taken up a project for dredging the Gomti river, which is in the planning commission for financial approval.”
“We have not got any official offer letter from India regarding the dredging cost of the Gomti river yet,” he added.
A trial run was conducted on the Gomti River with the first export consignment of 50 tons of cement from Bangladesh to the Indian state of Tripura on September 5, 2020, Golam Sadeq said.
Md Abdul Matin, chief engineer (dredging) of BIWTA told Dhaka Tribune: “If India wants to bear 80% of the dredging cost of the Gomti river, it will give pace to the project, which is waiting for the planning commission’s approval.
“The finance division asked BIWTA to bear the dredging cost of the Gomti river, which is not commercially viable for us as it will cost around Tk300 crore,” Matin added.
According to the Tripura chief minister, of the 90km stretch from Sonamura in Tripura’s Sepahijala district to Daudkandi in Bangladesh, around 40km of river bed needs to be dredged to increase the water level.
Deb said the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways of India would undertake a hydrographic survey in Howrah and Deo rivers for effective flood management.
The proposed waterway would prove useful for pushing infrastructure development in Tripura, he added.
Bangladesh would also benefit from the proposed waterway, the chief minister said.
A significant amount of wheat is exported to Bangladesh through Tripura, and “the transportation cost will naturally come down if they use the waterway”, he added.
It is estimated that more than 50 million people in Bangladesh and India depend on the ecosystem services provided by the river basin, including indigenous forest-dependent communities, such as the Khasia, Garo, and Jaintia, and fishermen and farmers depending on the extensive wetlands (Haors) of the Sylhet region in Bangladesh.
The basin covers an area of 82,000 square kilometers, of which 35,000 square kilometers (43% of the total area) are in Bangladesh, according to a study.
Earlier, the second addendum to the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between Bangladesh and India was signed on May 20, 2020, which added five more ports of call and two Indo Bangladesh Protocol (IBP) water routes in the protocol.
Riva Ganguly Das, then high commissioner of India in Bangladesh, on behalf of the Republic of India, and Mohammed Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, secretary of Ministry of Shipping, on behalf of Bangladesh, signed the addendum.
That amendment increased the number of IBP routes from eight to 10 with the inclusion of the Sonamura- Daudkandi stretch of Gomti river (93 km) as IBP route numbers 9 and 10 in the Protocol to improve the connectivity of Tripura and adjoining states with the economic centres of Bangladesh and India.
The Protocol was first signed in 1972, immediately after the emergence of Bangladesh.
