Thousands of passengers from around 21 southern districts of the country remained stranded at the Paturia and Daulatdia ferry terminals for hours yesterday due to severe disruption in ferry services on the Paturia-Daulatdia river route.

The pressure on the route has been exceptionally high since the ferry service on the Shimulia-Mawa was disrupted over two weeks ago due to problems in navigation.  

The situation worsened yesterday after the Ro Ro ferry-Amanat Shah got stuck near Daulatdia ghat for over four hours due to an engine fault. The ferry loaded with bus, trucks and passengers heading towards Daulatdia of Rajbari from Paturia of Manikganj remained stranded from 7:30am to 11:30am.

SM Ashikuzzaman, general manager (commerce) of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC), said the ferry would be sent to the local floating workshop 'Modhumoti' for repair.

Nine Ro Ro ferries, one K-type and 10 utility ferries are in operation on the Paturia-Daulatdia river route, he said

Assistant general manager (commerce) of BIWTC, Jillur Rahman, however, claimed 17 ferries were in operation. The ferry service was hampered due to shortage of ferries, he explained, adding that 20 ferries were in operation during the Eid holiday period because of the increase in the number of services passing through the junction. The pressure of vehicles on the route mounted because of the decrease in number of ferry services available, he said.

The strong current on the River Padma has also hampered the boat service, he added.

Meanwhile, more than three hundred long route buses remained stranded at Paturia ghat around 4:30 pm yesterday. On the other side of the river at Daulatdia ghat, over seven hundred vehicles including three hundred loaded trucks remained stranded, manager (commerce) of BIWTC at Daulatdia office Shafiqul Islam said.

Vehicles were stranded on both sides for an average of four hours each at least he said. Thousands of passengers including women and children stranded on the vehicles were facing multiple problems including lack of food and toilet services.

Abdur Rahim of Kushtia, a passenger travelling with his family, said he reached at Paturia ferry terminal at around 11:00 am and has been waiting for over three hours to board a ferry. He said he did not go home for the Eid holidays to avoid this kind of sufferings at ferry ghats and was travelling today and had met with the same kind of situation he meant to avoid.

Another passenger Shahjalal Hossain of Magura said he had to wait at Paturia ferry ghat for more than four hours. Many passengers from southern districts said the government should build bridge at Paturia-Daualtdia over the Padma River to solve this lingering problem.

Our Munshiganj correspondent adds, the Shimulia-Mawa ferry route has been disrupted for the last 19 days. Ferries here were operating normally during high tides but not during low tides. BIWTA has advised ferries to take a longer route of around 30 km as the regular Lauhajang channel remains closed for dredging.

Khandakar Shah Khaled Newaj, assistant general manager of BIWTC said, normally it takes two and half hour for a return trip from Mawa to Shimulia route. But yesterday it took over 10 hours in average to complete a return trip for Birshrestha Zahangir ferry as it had to cross the extra 30 km. 

BIWTA is dredging the Lauhajang route and it will be reopened soon, he said.