Encroachment on Shitalakkhya
19 dockyards to withdraw
Around 19 dockyard owners gave a written undertaking to Narayanganj District Administration and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) yesterday to remove their establishments and the soil they dumped, encroaching on the Shitalakkhya river, in a month.
The dockyards had encroached on around 200 yards on an average past the recently set up demarcation pillars of the river along a one kilometre stretch, locally known as Purbogao Mouja, said BIWTA Deputy Director Alamgir Kabir.
The district administration served them an eviction notice last year and launched a drive on Sunday. They pledged to remove the soil in two weeks and the dockyards within a month, said Alamgir.
Md Mohabbat Hossain Khan, general secretary of Purbogaon Dockyard Owners Association, said they would relocate their dockyards, set up five years ago, on private land or on leased khas land.
“We will never conduct business by encroaching on the river,” he said.
Meanwhile, a joint team of the district administration and BIWTA conducted a drive led by Executive Magistrate Afroza Akhtar yesterday and on Sunday and removed nearly 30 semi-concrete and makeshift structures in the area.
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