Bangladesh: Committee identifies eight rivers to export sand

Asif Showkat Kallol Dhaka Tribune 25 Sep 14;

According to sources, several sand and soil exporters had already submitted their proposals to the Commerce Ministry for permission to export sand to Singapore and Maldives

Seven recommendations put forward by the committee on the sand export policy were finalised at a meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting was held at the Commerce Ministry with Additional Secretary Shawkat Hossain Warsa in the chair.

The committee recommends that the government should lift sand from eight rivers – Padma, Jamuna, Meghna, Teesta, Dhaleshwari, Brahmaputra, Gomti and Fazilpur and Ghashia canal and export it, official sources said.

It also recommends that the Commerce Ministry fix the price of sand and sand exporters should take permission from the ministry.

An official said the committee would submit its recommendations to Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon who returned home from abroad yesterday. If necessary, the policy proposal would go to the cabinet committee on economic affairs for approval, he said.

According to the recommendations, Water Development Board and Seaport Authority would choose sand for export as the two government agencies were lifting sand regularly.

Local sand exporters could earn $1 billion from export of 10 million tonnes of sand. Ministries and divisions concerned would look into if it puts any negative impact on the environment for export of sand from the country’s different sandbar areas.

Sand exporters would collect sand from capital dredging areas on their own management, according to the recommendations.

Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon formed an eight-member committee in an inter-ministerial meeting on July 22. The committee was supposed to submit a report in a month.

According to sources, several sand and soil exporters had already submitted their proposals to the Commerce Ministry for permission to export sand to Singapore and Maldives.

The Network and Infrastructure Company had already applied to the Commerce Ministry, seeking approval for exporting over 1.5m tonnes of sand to Singapore. The proposal, however, still remains pending.

Earlier, the government of Maldives showed interest to import sand from Bangladesh during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to that country in the middle of her last tenure.

The move could not yield any further progress due to bureaucratic complexities.