State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury on Saturday said an international standard river port will be set up in Chandpur to ease the traffic movement through the waterways.

“The office of the Department of Shipping has been opened in Chandpur. As a result, there is no need to go to Dhaka for collecting fitness certificates for the water vehicles and other services. Shipping services will be reached to the door of the people.”

Khalid Mahmud said this while addressing the concluding programme of ‘Maritime Safety Week-2022’ as the chief guest at Chandpur Shilpakala Academy.      

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Warning the sand extractors, the state minister said legal actions will be taken against the illegal and unplanned sand extractors, no matter how strong they are.

“We need sand from the river. But not in an unplanned way,” he said.      

Khalid said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is leading the development works of the shipping management including recovery of the extinct and encroached rivers and bringing back the water flow in those rivers by dredging.

"She (Sheikh Hasina) has also emphasized collecting more dredgers to recover the waterways. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had collected seven dredgers after the Liberation War of the country to keep the navigability of the rivers," Khalid added.

The State Minister for Shipping also said, “The prime minister will mesmerize the world on June 25 next. We, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will build Sonar Bangla, dreamt by Bangabandhu. The Ministry of Shipping wants to play a special role in this achievement.” 

Commodore AZM Jalal Uddin, Director General of the Department of Shipping chaired the programme while senior secretary of the Ministry of Shipping Md. Mostafa Kamal, among others, spoke.