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Buriganga Shore

Sand lifting permission suspended

Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) yesterday suspended the work order allowing sand lifting from the river Buriganga in Basila following a report published in The Daily Star yesterday.
The BIWTA on June 26 permitted Messrs Ali Associates International to extract 10 lakh cubic feet of sand from areas near Basila and Jhaochar with the help of three dredgers over a period of 30 days.
The company, however. defying the contract deployed 14 powerful dredgers in the area to lift a huge quantity of sand. They are selling sand extracted from here worth over half a million taka each day to the booming construction sector of the country.
When locals protested this, the company deployed armed hoodlums on patrol boats in the area.
In a letter to Ali Associates International, BlWTA’s Senior Deputy Director Golam Kabir informed the company that his office has decided to suspend all work orders related to sand lifting on the basis of violation of clauses in the contract.
Copies of this letter were also sent to police and Rab head-quarters.
These highly powerful dredgers have been at work round the clock since June 25 lifting sand from the bed of the river filling large barges, each with a load capacity of up to 9,000 cubic feet of sand in less than an hour.
Hundreds of barges are lihed up each day to fill up the cargo at a rate of Tk I for each cubic foot of sand. These are sent to the largest sand market in the country in Amin Bazar, some ten kilometres upstream.
The large scale dredging operation near the densely populated township on the river bank created panic among the residents of Basila who had, in August 2004, witnessed an unprecedented erosion that devoured over 100 houses including six-storey buildings mainly caused by similar 'sand piracy'.
Meanwhile, till late in the afternoon yesterday the operation was continuing in full swing.
Residents in Basila said that they would appeal to the authorities not to pennit any more dredging in the area.
An elderly resident of Basila said that river Buriganga was scientifically dredged only a few years ago to pave the way for the
Circular Waterway Project of the MinistryofShipping.
"The permission for sand extraction now cannot be justified.'' he said requesting anonymity.
“This whole deal to sell sand and make crores at the cost of our homes, land and river must be investigated."