The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Narayanganj

The Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd. (DEW) run by Bangladesh Navy at Sonakanda in the district has undertaken a comprehensive plan for modernising the dockyard.

Official sources said, under the Taka 100-crore scheme the DWE will build ocean-going vessels of international standard and overhaul old, obsolete and dilapidated machinery.

The naval engineers and technicians by this time undertook a work plan to repair machinery and equipment worth about Taka 25 crore. Nearly 80 percent work on the plan has already been completed.

The repaired machinery included one jetty crane, one floating crane, one mobile crane, two over head cranes of the work shop, six lathe machines, including one multipurpose universal machine, three shaper machines, one bending machine, two boilers, one saw mills and slippers plat and rail carriages along with hard standing floor, one blacksmith shop, one foundry, one Russian store and 11 workshops.

Established in 1926 on a 22-acre plot on the eastern bank of the river Shitalakkha, the ocean-going ship building dockyard went into production in 1950. Many foreign firms used to have their ocean-going tugs built at the dockyard through international tender during the pre- liberation period.

After independence of the country in 1971, it was placed under the supervision of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) of the Ministry of Industries. The dockyard was laid off on December 21, 2002. Subsequently, it was handed over to Bangladesh Privatisation Board as a sick industrial unit in 2004.

The Ministry of Industries through the Defence Ministry handed over the management of the dockyard to Bangladesh Navy on December 7, 2006 through a gazette notification.