Sufferings continue on ferries

The sufferings of people from 21 districts in the country's south and south-western parts are continuing due to a disruption in ferry services on both Shimulia-Kathalbari and Paturia-Daulatdia routes, as they head back to the capital after Eid vacation.

Yesterday, thousands of passengers and several hundred vehicles had to wait for hours on both sides of the routes to cross the Padma river.

On Shimulia-Kathalbari route, only eight small ferries were operating in place of 21. Due to a lack of navigability caused by continuous siltation, the ferries were carrying lightweight vehicles.

Our Munshiganj correspondent reported that police forbade the heavy vehicles like buses and trucks to use Shimulia-Kathalbari route. And more than a hundred lightweight vehicles like cars were waiting on both sides of the route to cross the river.

Khaled Newaz, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Shimulia Ferry Ghat, said they cannot provide normal ferry services to the passengers due to the siltation, let alone special service for the Eid.

To minimise the disruption, BIWTC is operating the ferries amid risk of being stuck in silt, he told the correspondent.

Only 1,344 lightweight vehicles were transported on the route on Wednesday whereas around 4,000 vehicles were transported every day during previous Eid seasons, he said. The government is deprived of a huge revenue due to the reduced number of vehicles ferried, he said.

Seven dredgers were working to make the route normal and two more days will be needed for that, he added.

In addition, ferry transportation on Paturia-Daulatdia route was largely hampered by strong current in the Padma river, as the ferries were taking twice as much time for each trip, said Shafiqul Islam, a manager at Daulatdia office of BIWTC.

Our Manikganj correspondent reported that the buses carrying passengers to Dhaka queued up at Daulatdia side of Paturia-Daulatdia route and waited for around five hours to get on a ferry. Shafiqul Islam said at around 5:00pm, nearly 200 private cars and microbuses, 300 buses and more than 350 trucks were lined up on a stretch of six to seven kilometres of the road leading up to Daulatdia dock .

Twenty-one out of 22 ferries were operating on the route, he told the correspondent, adding that the pressure of vehicles might reduce after tomorrow.