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The Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has finally received the main cutter suction dredger from China for the capital dredging project in the Karnaphuli river.
The dredger was scheduled to reach the port by the middle of January, after rescheduling by the supplier, it is learnt.
The 31-inch cutter suction dredger has the capacity to dredge 3500 cubic metres of sand from the riverbed an hour.
It will be put into service for the capital dredging of river from Sadarghat point as soon as possible, sources in the CPA said.
Secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority Md Omar Faruq said the high capacity suction dredger anchored at the outer anchorage of the port at Kutubdia on Monday.
It will take at least two weeks to have the pipe fittings and other related work completed before it starts the dredging work from Sadarghat point of the river, he said.
He also expressed the hope that the dredging work in the port channel will begin in full swing this month.
The CPA is currently carrying out capital dredging with two 20-inch cutter suction dredgers in the Sadarghat-Bakoliar Char portion of the river.
But these dredgers with lower capacity could not perform as expected as the river is littered with polythene, plastic bottles and chips packets, which need to be removed with the help of boatmen before dredging of the soil from the riverbed, sources said.
The port authority signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Navy on May 5, 2018 for conducting the river dredging under the project titled 'Sadarghat-Bakoliar Char River Dredging'. About 4.3 million cubic metres of silt will be dredged under the project.
This is the second project of the CPA for the capital dredging of the river that acts as a port channel through which the vessels reaches the port. The project involves Tk 2.58 billion.
Apart from dredging, the new dredger will fill in some 300 acres of land of the under-construction Maritime University at Nazirchar on the riverbank.
Sources in the office of Chief Hydrographer of the CPA said the delay in receiving the new dredger from China has slowed down the dredging work.
Some 50 per cent dredging work was supposed to be completed by now, but only 25 per cent of the work has been done, they said.
At first, the CPA took up the capital dredging project in 2011 and offered the job to the Malaysian Maritime & Dredging Corporation.
The foreign company, however, quit halfway through the project which then remained temporarily suspended due to legal complications between the Malaysian firm and the CPA.