In January 2019, the Directorate of Fisheries started its biggest project called 'Sustainable Coastal and Marine Fisheries Project' to advance the country's fisheries sector. The duration of this project costing about two and a half thousand rupees is seven months. But the work progress is only 65 percent. In this situation, the project has faced big financial cuts in the last year of the term. Those concerned say that some activities have been left out due to the fear of non-implementation of the project as it is at the end of its term.
According to the sources of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, about 800 crore rupees have been excluded from this project, which was jointly financed by the World Bank and the Government of Bangladesh. However, the project department said that the amount excluded from the project is Rs. 721 crore. Out of this, Tk 70 crore has been allocated for practical research and commercial investment, Tk 40 crore has been allocated for the construction of fish landing center for the development of seafood value chain, Tk 70 crore 50 lakh has been excluded for the establishment of SFF brood management center for Bagda shrimp and Tk 148 crore 35 has been excluded from the development of Chakaria shrimp. Lakhs of Tk.
The director of Sustainable Coastal and Marine Fisheries Project believes that even if a large amount of money is excluded, there will be no impact on the project. Zia Haider Chowdhury. He told today's newspaper, 'We are getting World Bank loan money in dollars. As the value of the dollar increases, the amount of money in the project increases. As a result, there will not be much impact on the project activities.' He said, 'We have excluded some works from the project due to space problems. We have plans to do the omitted works when we get the project later.'
Project Details: The project is undertaken to maximize utilization of the country's marine and coastal fisheries through sustainable management and to improve the livelihood of the coastal communities. The project has created employment for 238 people. The project area is 75 upazilas of 16 coastal districts of the country including Khulna, Noakhali, Cox's Bazar, Bhola. The project activities are divided into four parts. These include capacity-building activities to achieve sustainable investment and growth in the fisheries sector—conducting 20 project-funded surveys, installing 8,500 GSM devices on fishing vessels and 5 MTU devices on commercial fishing vessels, and developing software for registration of fishing vessels and licensing of fishermen.
Formation of 350 shrimp clusters and provision of grants to 300 clusters under infrastructure and production management development program, development of 17 post harvest service centers, canal re-dredging activities, modernization of 10 fish landing centers, three fish health diagnostic labs, three fish quarantine labs and three PCR labs has been constructed.
In the empowerment and livelihood of fishermen communities, transformation of alternative occupations includes establishment of CBOs in 450 coastal fishing villages and establishment of fishermen federations in 45 upazilas, establishment of 100 model fishing villages and bringing 18 thousand youths of fishing villages under skill development training.
Although the project was approved in 2018, the work started in January 2019. Five and a half years have passed, but the project has not made the desired progress. Till October this year, the financial progress of the project has been only 45.40 percent. And the actual progress has been 65 percent.
Regarding the slow progress of the project, the project director said, 'It is too late to start the project. Although the project was approved in 2018, the work started in January 2019. For two years, there was no work for Corona. Due to these reasons the progress of the project was very slow in the beginning. But now all the work has progressed a long way, the rest of the work will be completed during the project period.'
