The Daily Star, May 11, 2002


North-Bangladesh Deep Tubewell: Project to be revived

BSS, Rajshahi


The North-Bangladesh Deep Tubewell Project (NDTP) will be revived following the Barind 
Multipurpose Development Authorities (BMDA) model to bring a vast area in greater 
Dinajpur district under the coverage of irrigation.

The project will be restored full-scale following the model of BMDA that has achieved 
striking success in the field of irrigation, based on self-help system, sources said.


Under the BMDA project, farmers buy coupons in advance to get a certain amount of water 
for their farms.


NDTP had been launched in 1962 covering 19 thanas under greater Dinajpur district to 
provide farmlands with irrigation facilities for free.


Some 1,217 deep tubewells had been installed and water was supplied to 59,500 hectares 
of farmland till 1990 under the project.


But the project began to crawl into a collapse when the Water Development Board (WDB) 
ceased to give subsidies for electricity to run the tubewells in 1999.


The authorities then formed 1,217 cooperative societies comprising the beneficiaries 
of the project to run the tubewells on their own, but they failed and the project came 
to a halt.


Soon outstanding power bills hit Tk 3.16 crore, dealing a death blow to the project.


Now the government wants to copy the model of BMDA, which is successfully offering 
irrigation facilities to 25 upazilas under Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon 
districts, to breath life into the NDTP project.


A 6-member technical sub-committee has already been constituted to this end with 
Executive Director of BMDA Dr Asaduzzaman as its convenor.


The sub-committee will study the operation and maintenance of the tubewells under the 
BMDA and come up with a set of recommendations for running the NDTP smoothly.


Some 35 farmers and eight officials of NDTP have also reached here to gather firsthand 
experience of BMDA activities.


They have visited some crop fields and exchanged views with the BMDA officials.


A day-long workshop was also held at the Centre for Action Research of Barind (CARB) 
at Amtali under Godagari upazila on Wednesday to this end.


State Minister for Agriculture Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will visit the area today 
to see the activities of BMDA.