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The ministry of shipping (MoS) would purchase river cleaner vessels to save rivers from pollution, officials said.
It also decided to expedite the ongoing dredging works of the rivers for ensuring proper navigability of water ways and smooth transportation of river vessels.
The decisions were taken at a meeting between the MoS and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) at the ministry's conference room at Bangladesh Secretariat on Wednesday, with state minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury in the chair.
An official, who attended the meeting, told the FE that the MoS will carry out a feasibility study on using the cleaners to be used on the rivers mainly surrounding the capital.
The meeting also decided to expedite the ongoing works of setting up the boundary pillars of the rivers.
The MoS following the directives of the Prime Minister's Office has taken a set of measures to free the rivers from illegal encroachment and to make the rivers free of pollution.
The BIWTA has started eviction drive against the land grabbers of Buriganga and Turag rivers. It has already recovered some lands from the grabbers.
The state minister asked the BIWTA officials to expedite the ongoing works of river dredging and setting up of the boundary pillars and develop the walkways.
The meeting was told that setting up of the boundary pillars and developing the walkways on the bank of Buriganga were progressing at Kamrangirchar and Ramchandrapur points in Dhaka.
The meeting was also informed that the BIWTA has procured six more excavators for carrying out eviction drives, extract wastes and uplift sands from the river bed.
The state minister also asked the BIWTA officials to restore ferry services between Bahadurabad ghat of Jamalpur and Balashighat of Gaibanda, recruit manpower and complete the development works of Chilmari and other river ports and ghats.
The BIWTA has made a profit of Tk 2.44 billlon during the fiscal year 2018-19, the meeting was told.
Additional secretary of the shipping ministry Bhola Nath Dey and chairman of BIWTA Commodore M Mahbub-Ul-Islam, among others, were present at the meeting.