Dredging of Water Routes to Rooppur Plant Likely

Water routes from Chittagong and Mongla seaports to Rooppur nuclear power plant site on the bank of the River Padma near Pakshi, Pabna, are likely to be dredged to help the heavy cargo movement.

Many places of these two important water routes lose navigability to below four metres during the lean period, which will disrupt transporting heavy equipment for the plant to be imported from abroad, official sources said.

The shipping ministry is going to implement a Tk 880 crore project in this connection, entire cost of which will come from the state coffer.

The Planning Commission is now scrutinising the project proposal and the scheme is expected to get nod from Ecnec soon.

“Heavy cargoes for the power plant will come from foreign countries to Chittagong and Mongla ports through sea routes. Then, the cargoes will be shipped to plant site at Rooppur. So, we want to enhance the navigability of these routes to facilitate that transport,” a shipping ministry high-up said.

“Some places of these two water routes have navigability less than four metres. We want to conduct dredging in those places in line with necessity,” he added. Dredging will be conducted at different places of Munsiganj, Rajbari, Manikganj, Pabna, Faridpur and Kushtia districts under the new project. The 415km Chittagong port-Rooppur route will require 110 lakh cubic metres dredging and the route will see 30 to 40 lakh cubic metres maintenance dredging every year following the required dredging, sources said.

The 450km Mongla-Rooppur route will see 120 lakh cubic metres of dredging and subsequently 35 lakh to 45 lakh cubic metre maintenance dredging will be done in the route every year.

In addition, 70km Goalanda to Mawa route will also see necessary dredging.

The primary work of Tk 1,13,000 crore Rooppur nuclear power plant project first started in 2009 and the construction of the 2,400MW capacity main plant is likely to start in December this year.

Source: daily-sun