Dhaka-The 31-kilometre long Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel will formally open on Thursday.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the channel through videoconferencing from Ganobhaban, said Bagerhat deputy commissioner Tapan Kumar Bishwas.
She will also open newly procured 11 dredgers and a silo constructed with Tk 578 crore in Mongla.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan will be present at Ganobhaban while Shipping Secretary Ashok Madhab Roy and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) chairman Commodore Mohammad Mozammel Haque will be here in Bagerhat during the opening ceremony.
According to the BIWTA, of the 31-kilometre Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel flowing through the Kumarkhali River in Rampal upazila and the Mongla River of the Mongla upazila, the BIWTA authorities have so far dug 26 kilometres.
The BIWTA officials said the channel will reduce distance by nearly 81 kilometres once the river route opens.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman first opened the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel in 1972-74.
The channel began to silt up with the flowing water of the Pashur and Baleswar rivers during tide.
The channel lost its navigability as businessmen began illegal shrimp cultivation by closing different link canals and constructing various polders.
Following the closure of the channel in 2010, vessels started plying through the Shela River on April 28, 2011 as an alternative route.
The BIWTA started dredging the channel on July 1, 2014 as per the directive of the prime minister.
Authorities reopened the important channel (13-14 feet deep and 200-300 feet width) on May 6, 2015 on an experimental basis on completion of required dredging, said BIWTA additional chief engineer AHM Faraduzzaman.
BIWTA chairman Commodore Mohammad Mozammel Haque said the capital dredging works of the channel have already been completed and now its maintaining works are going on for the water flow.
Some 35,015 vessels plied the route from May 6 last year to October 23 this year, he said.
