Poor navigability of river disrupts ferry services

Ferry service in the Shimulia-Kawrakandi route, which is known as the gateway to 21 districts of southern part of the country, has been disrupted for the last five days due to poor navigability and strong current in the Padma, causing suffering to commuters.

Almost all passenger buses changed their route yesterday to avoid Shimulia ghat, while three to four hundred goods-laden trucks got stuck on both sides of the Shimulia-Kawrakandi route.

Md Ashiquzzaman, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) said, "Ferry Kusumkali and ferry Camelia are plying the river for the last two days and they have made only four trips, while the 18 ferries on the route generally made 70 to 80 trips a day. The rest 16 ferries are not running."

Ferry service has been hampered for almost three weeks on this route and travellers are crossing the river by launches and speedboats, risking their lives.

Meanwhile, a team of 12 members conducted survey on the route yesterday, and two powerful dredgers of Padma Bridge Project will start dredging in the channel of the river today.

Md Sultan Ahmed Khan, executive engineer (Dredging) of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said "Using these dredgers will help ferry service return to normalcy."

Dredging is needed to have enough water in the channel, but the silt coming with the strong current fills up of the channel, the engineer said.