Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd. (DEW / DEWL)

The current status of this enterprise is unclear. The Bangladesh Navy website still points to the Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd. website, but the DEW website was briefly online in 2011 and as of mid-2012 the domain name was for sale.

Dockyard and Engineering Works (DEW) Ltd, Narayanganj was an important strategic installation in the maritime industry. Initially this industry was a profit making concern during Pakistan regime and also after the independence. Bangladesh Navy (BN) took over the responsibility of this Dockyard. It now operates under the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and the responsibility of management and operation lies with the BN.

Established in 1926 on a 22-acre plot on the eastern bank of the Shitalakkha river at Narayanganj, Bangladesh (25 km from Dhaka), the ocean-going ship-building dockyard went into operation in 1950. The bank of river builds up many shipyard and dockyard such as Narayanganj Shipyard Ltd, Dockyard & Engineering Works Ltd, and B.I.W.T.C. Dockyard No 1, 2, 3, and Floating Dock.

Many foreign firms used to have their ocean-going tugs built at the dockyard through international tender during the pre-liberation period. After independence of the country in 1971, it was placed under the supervision of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC) of the Ministry of Industries. Owing to various reasons, during late 1990's, the industry started incurring severe losses and ultimately Dockyard was laid off by the government on 21 December 2002.

Subsequently, it was handed over to Bangladesh Privatisation Board as a sick industrial unit in 2004. The Ministry of Industries through the Defence Ministry handed over the management of the dockyard to Bangladesh Navy on December 7, 2006 through a gazette notification.

BN was tasked to run it commercially and turn it into a profitable concern which was no more dream. BN could successfully turn it into a viable profit making industry with hardship, dedication, well planned and effective future vision. In 2008 the Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd. (DEW) run by Bangladesh Navy at Sonakanda in the district undertaken a comprehensive plan for modernising the dockyard. Official sources said the DWE would build ocean-going vessels of international standard and overhaul the old and obsolete machinery under a Tk 1.0 billion (100 crore) scheme.

It had all the facilities for building Ro-Ro Ferry, Tug Boats, Inland & Coastal Vessels, Barges etc. It has also repair and maintenance facilities apart from equipment to produce industrial spares. The company is well equipped with slipway, workshops having facilities of lathe shear, press, drill, grinding, boring, milling, cranes, forklifts, jack, pulleys etc. The slipway measures 298'X290' with a capacity to dock vessels upto 300 feet in length and dead load of 780 tonnes.

The state-owned DEWL, once operational, would be the seventh company in the country to enter into the booming shipbuilding industry, after the Ananda, Chittagong-based Western Marine, Fatullah-based Highspeed, Meghnaghat-based Khan Brothers and Meghna Group and Karnaphuli-based Rangs Group. The Khan Brothers, Meghna Group and Rangs Group were working to set up world standard shipyard to bag international orders of ocean-going ships.