School children near ship recycling yard in Dhaka.Shipyard workers near the Buriganga River in Dhaka.There are more than 35 shipyards in Old Dhakas Keraniganj area in the bank of the river Burigonga, where small ships, launches and steamers are built and repaired around the clock.About 15,000 people are working in extremely dangerous conditions earn Tk. 300-400 BDT (1 USD = 78 BDT) as they don't get safety gear from the dock owners and accidents are common.Most of the private shipyards use plate, engine, component and machinery of old merchant ship collected from many ship recycling industries located in Bangladesh. But frequent accident and heavy human causalities of inland vessels often raise question about the quality of ships produced in local shipyards.Bangladesh are now exporting small and medium-sized ships for the highly competitive European market. The vessels were built for countries including Denmark, Germany and Finland. Bangladesh shipbuilding is being compared with giants such as China, Japan and South Korea.

Uploaded on 07 Jan 2015 02:27 645 Views