Ferries stop for 13 hours due to fog

Ferry service between Paturia and Doulatdia resumed yesterday morning after a 14-hour halt due to dense fog. Queues of vehicles on both ends remained for hours more.Photo: Focus Bangla

Several hundred vehicles got stranded on the both sides of Paturia-Daulatdia and Paturia-Kazirhat routes yesterday as ferry services were disrupted for 13 hours due to dense fog.
Sources said the ferry services were suspended from 9:00pm Tuesday to 10:00am yesterday, causing immense sufferings to thousands of people travelling on the routes.
Five ferries loaded with vehicles carrying goods and passengers were forced to anchor at Paturia ghat while three ferries at Daulatdia ghat due to fog, said Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation manager (commerce) Ashraf Ullah Khan.
He said around 350 vehicles, including trucks and passenger buses, lined up at Daulatdia ghat while 300 vehicles at Paturia ghat at 6:30pm.
The ferry services resumed around 10:00am on the routes but the authorities struggled to ferry such huge number of vehicles.
"The pickup van carrying the body of my uncle from Dhaka Medical College Hospital reached Paturia ferry ghat at about 10:00pm Tuesday to go to our village home in Madaripur but we could not cross the river yet," Sajeda Begum said while talking to The Daily Star yesterday morning.