The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has procured 11 dredgers at a cost of Tk. 269 crore without ensuring adequate manpower to put them into operation. The new dredgers have been added to the BIWTA's dredger fleet—the total number of dredgers is now 18—and three more will be procured by the end of this year,  according to BIWTA sources. The BIWTA had appointed 182 people to operate seven dredgers which were procured in 1975 by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The same personnel now have to operate the 18 dredgers since no new staffers have been appointed to operate the new dredgers. This is going to hamper smooth dredging activities and waste a lot of time. “A total of 26 people is needed to operate a dredger in two shifts. There is shortage of manpower in our dredger fleet,” MA Matin, chief engineer (dredging) of the BIWTA, told The Independent yesterday.
Replying to a question, Matin said there is shortage of people in different posts, including mechanical assistants, diesel mechanic, masters (first and second class), drivers (first and second class), lever man, and greaser and quarter masters to operate dredgers smoothly.
He also said that the BIWTA has proposed to create 487 different posts against approved 126 posts. “The authorities concerned must create the posts for smooth dredging works immediately. We could do more dredging with more manpower. Now, we're implementing 53 river route projects under the capital dredging project—a priority project of the Prime Minister—with our meagre manpower,” he added.    
The government has already approved 10 more dredgers for the BIWTA.
In fact, the BIWTA has long been suffering from acute shortage of trained manpower in operating tugboats, excavators, and other ships.
The BIWTA's large fleet of dredgers, tugboats, ships and excavators are mostly lying unused at present as they cannot be operated smoothly without skilled masters, drivers and other workers, sources said. Large amounts of money will go down the drain if adequate manpower is not appointed immediately in the dredging sector, they added.