Steps taken to develop, preserve 10,000 km waterways: State Minister

The government has taken initiatives to develop and preserve 10,000 kilometers waterways of the country.

State Minister for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said this in parliament on Thursday in reply to a query of independent MP elected from Dhaka Muhammad Saiful Islam.

In reply to a query of ruling Awami League MP elected from Lxmipur Nur Uddin Chowdhury Nayan, Khalid Mahmud said the total number of rescue ships of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) is now four-Nirvhik, Pratya, Hamza and Rustom.

He also informed the House that process is underway to collect salvage ships having the capacity of lifting 1500 to 2000 tonnes in future.

Besides, the state minister also said measures were taken to collect respective machineries including four winch barge for increasing the rescue capacity of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).

Meanwhile, Religious Affairs Minister Faridul Haque Khan informed the House that the ministry has no statistics about the total number of mosques in the country at present.

However, during the period of Covid pandemic, the information of the mosques was collected through the divisional and district offices of the Islamic Foundation by the Prime Minister for financial donations to the mosques.

Accordingly to the estimate, the number of mosques is 3,31,125, the minister in reply to a query of AL MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury.