BIWTA floating dockyard rusting for seven years
Towed to Dhaka from Barisal seven years ago to catch up with the booming dockyard trade, BIWTA even fails to kick-start the only modern dockyard facility
Raihan Sabuktagin
The only floating dockyard installed by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) by the river Buriganga at Gazir Ghat under Shyampur thana is sitting idle for the last seven years.Absence of dredging, inadequate supply of electricity and insufficient workforce are major reasons behind the inoperative state of this safe docking technology, according to BIWTA officials. This type of floating dockyard needs a standard river depth for its sinking function while sufficient current is required to drain vessel wastes during the repair work, said experts. During the then Pakistan era, the German-built dockyard was initially installed in Barisal in 1967 as a feasibility study recommended Barisal as the most suitable place in entire Pakistan for the installation of such dockyard. BIWTA officials told Star City that the dockyard was brought to the river Buriganga from Barisal in 2001. "Considering huge business potential in Dhaka and Narayanganj, this dockyard with high docking capacity was brought to the river Buriganga," a top official at the dockyard said. Installation of such a huge facility needs some time and the BIWTA is making arrangements for proper instalment of the dockyard, he added. About the advantages of a floating dockyard, he said, a floating dockyard takes only two hours for docking and undocking a vessel as opposed to a 'slipway' dockyard that takes at least six days for the same job. "Unlike the slipway docking system, this docking technology does not damage vessels as it does not pull the vessels onto the dock for repair work." Instead, a floating vessel is placed above the submerged dock and the dock lifts up the vessel above water for repair work, he added. The dockyard however needs a certain depth for dipping under water. This depth is not available at Gazir Ghat, he observed. BIWTA dredged the dock area recently, but illegal sand and brick traders operating on the riverbank ruined the depth within a short time, he added. A power sub station was recently established by the BIWTA to solve the power problem at the dockyard, "but the authorities still need to repair one of the two generators of the dockyard for ensuring continuous power supply," he said adding, The dockyard could be very profitable by repairing privately owned vessels if it was fully functional. A worker at the dockyard alleged, "Since its installation on the Buriganga, the dockyard repaired only ten BIWTA vessels."
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