Ferry Service: Many suffer as dense fog causes chaos

Dense fog forced the authorities to suspend ferry services on the Paturia-Daulatdia and the Shimulia-Banglabazar routes for hours, causing immense sufferings to passengers.

People had to wait for eight to 10 hours yesterday to board ferries to cross the Padma river. 

Paturia is in Manikganj and Daulatdia in Rajbari. The Shimulia ferry terminal is in Munshiganj, while Banglabazar is in Madaripur.

Meanwhile, four domestic flights faced delays in landing at Saidpur Airport in Nilphamari for over four hours due to thick fog.

Yesterday's weather forecast said, "Moderate to thick fog may occur over the country from midnight to morning and it may continue till noon at places over the country."

"Night temperature may rise by one to three degrees Celsius and day temperature may remain nearly unchanged over the country," said a bulletin of Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

"Weather may remain mainly dry with partly cloudy sky over the country having chances of light rain at one or two places over Dhaka, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions."

The weather forecast for next 24 hours was released at 9:00am yesterday.

Yesterday's lowest temperature was recorded at 10 degrees Celsius in Sreemangal of Moulvibazar, according to the Met office.

In Nilphamari, the fog was so thick that the first flight, which was scheduled to land at 11:00am yesterday at Saidpur Airport, made the landing around 3:15pm, said Supallab Kumar Ghosh, manager of the airport.

Subsequently, the rest three flights were delayed for almost similar hours, he added.

On the Paturia-Daulatdia ferry route, the authorities kept ferry services halted for around eight hours due to dense fog.

"Ferry operations were suspended around 3:00am yesterday due to poor visibility caused by thick fog," said Zillur Rahman, deputy general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Aricha office in Manikganj.

"Marking lights on the ferry route became almost invisible due to fog. So, the ferry services were suspended to avoid accidents."

Four ferries, which were carrying passengers and vehicles, got stranded in the middle of the Padma, the officer said.

Several hundred vehicles got stuck on both sides of the river due to the suspension of ferry services, causing passengers to suffer, said BIWTC officials and transport operations.

On the Shimulia-Banglabazar route, thick fog forced the authorities to halt ferry operations for around 10 hours from 12:00am yesterday.

"At least seven ferries carrying passengers and vehicles were stranded in the river due to fog," said Ahmed Ali, manager (marine) of BIWTC at Shimulia terminal.

Around 500 vehicles got stuck at both the ends of the river. The ferry services on the route resumed around 9:00am, said the official.

Afzal Hossain, who was going to Khulna on a bus, said, "I reached the ferry ghat around 2:00am. But we found the ferry services suspended. We had to wait for long to cross the river."

[Our correspondents in Manikganj and Nilphamari contributed to this report.]