The Shipping Ministry yesterday permanently banned the Shela River route in the Sundarbans, meaning no vessel will be allowed to ply it.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan announced the ban after a meeting with a river protection task force at the Secretariat.
The ban came four days after a coal-laden cargo vessel sank in the river in Harintana area.
Shajahan told reporters after yesterday’s meeting that an oil tanker and a coal-laden vessel had sunk in the Shela River which led to some environmental threats. “This has made the whole nation concerned.”
Meanwhile, the committee formed by the Forest Department to probe why the coal-laden vessel capsized submitted its report yesterday.
The report was submitted to Md Saidul Islam, divisional forest officer of the Forest Department (Sundarbans east), said probe committee chief Kamal Uddin Ahmed, also the assistant conservator of forest.
He said the committee had made three recommendations in the report, including banning all kinds of vessels from plying the Shela River.
