Illegal dockyards choke Buriganga

Around 70 dockyards have been running illegally for decades encroaching on the Buriganga river on a stretch extending between Kholamora of Keraniganj and Dharmaganj of Narayanganj.

As the dockyards are owned by many influential people, those remained out of any eviction drive conducted by the authorities concerned.

The dockyards have meanwhile been playing a good role in narrowing the river channel.

The Bangl-adesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BWTA), however, bulldozed two such dockyards yesterday at Mirerbagh of Dakshin Keraniganj that were established on an artificial shoal by dumping sands on the riverbed.

The dockyards are Dipraj Dockyard and Farhan Dockyard, both owned by two former lawmakers of BNP and Jatiya Party.

Arif Uddin, joint director (Dhaka river port) of BIWTA who led yesterday's drive, said both the dockyards were set up illegally around one and a half years ago.

He added around 70 dockyards from Kholamora of Keraniganj to Dharmaganj of Narayanganj were set up illegally grabbing different points of the river. There are 24 illegal dockyards at Mirerbagh alone, he informed.

He further said as per the CS, RS and other records, all the dockyards are illegal and set up on the Buriganga.

The BIWTA had earlier given conditional permission to set up dockyards but did not renew any of those since 2009 as per a directive issued by the High Court.

Arif said there was a decision of the Prime Minister's Office to shift all the dockyards downstream Munshiganj to make the river channel free.

As the dockyards grabbed a good chunk of the river, the channel of the river route has been shrunk, for which accidents often occur, he observed.

The BIWTA has however started the eviction drive finally and asked the rest of the dockyards to move downstream to clear the channel, the official said.

“We will remove all the dockyards gradually,” he added.

As it is a matter of huge amount of money, they did not demolish any under-construction ships yesterday but asked the owners to shift immediately, he said.

Arif said they are excavating sands from the tops of the artificial shoal and would later clear the river channel through dredging.

Mohammad Ratan, a resident of Mirerbagh, said illegal structures of the dockyards were demolished during the last army-backed caretaker government.

But those structures were set up again after a certain time, he added.

A bulldozer demolishes a structure during a BIWTA drive against two illegal dockyards at Mirerbagh of south Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital yesterday. The dockyards were set up grabbing a part of the Buriganga river. Photo: Anisur Rahman

Mahbub Alam Talukdar, owner of Talukdar Dockyard, claims they set up dockyards on their private land.

President of Dhaka Shipbuilders Group Nazmul Haque also claims that they are not running the dockyards illegally or by grabbing the river.

If there were any problems, the authorities should call them and identify the illegal points, he said.

When his attention was drawn to the river boundary where it is clear that the dockyards were set up on the riverbed, Nazmul claimed the boundary pillars were set up incorrectly.