The Bangladesh Bank (BB) today extended the deadline for shipbuilders to reschedule their defaulted loans by one month through a down payment of 2.5 percent.

Shipbuilding used to be one of the earliest industries in Bengal that expanded over the oceans from the Indian sea to the Persian Gulf. But it had died down centuries ago with the advent of industrial revolution. When marine engineer Sakhawat Hossain tossed a plan in 1995 to his friends to build cargo vessels—it was an idea that was never tried in the country before.