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CHATTOGRAM: The hydraulic survey of Karnaphuli River will be completed in April next as Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) approved an appeal by surveyors seeking four more months to complete the project.
CPA, which is implementing the Tk 140 million project titled 'Karnaphuli Hydrologic and Hydraulic Study', signed an agreement with Britain's HR Waling Ford company in 2019 to complete survey of the river by December this year.
Officials said, the survey which remained suspended multiple times in 2020 and 2021 mainly due to coronavirus outbreak, will resume on January 3 next.
Chief Hydrographer of CPA M Arifur Rahman told the FE a team of experts from the United Kingdom visited Chittagram last month and after assessing the work done so far and inspecting several points of the river appealed to extend the time till April 2022.
"An experts' team of HR Waling Ford company stayed in Chattogram for 15 days in November. It sought four months' extension time from December 2021 to April 2022 to finish the survey. Following the appeal, the project has been rescheduled to be completed within April," he said.
Replying to a question, he said that the company missed the scheduled time of finishing the work within December 2021 mainly due to coronavirus-induced a series of nationwide general holidays and lockdown in 2020 and 2021.
The survey remained stopped for a total of eight months in the current year as experts from the UK could not come here in March this year due to the second wave of the pandemic, he said.
However, the team visited Bangladesh for 15 days in November 2021 and recommended to resume the survey on January 3, 2022, he added.
Officials at the CPA said the agreement was signed with HR Waling Ford co on November 18, 2019 for surveying the entire Karnaphuli River from Kaptai dam point to the Outer Anchorage of Kutubdia.
The project aims at ensuring the maximum use of the water body regarding economic purpose, they noted.
According to the project plan, the surveyors will find out the port channel's navigational future, limitation of the river's navigability, management of waste and garbage, hydrological connection with jetties and the Bay Terminal etc, they stated.
In the final report, the team will also make a recommendation for saving the river's eco-system, they added.
Other purposes of the survey include estimation of siltation, pollution, encroachment, installations on the river's banks, dredging and morphological condition of river Karnaphuli, the lifeline of the Chittagong Port.