Faulty design, negligence and much more
On December 24, the MV Abhijan fire hazard took the lives of 49 people and injured many more. A month since the tragedy, one question still lingers in everyone's minds: who was responsible?
On January 23, a civil committee formed to probe the fire incident disclosed their findings and put forward 25 recommendations. During the probe, they found negligence of four government officials, four launch owners and four operators.
There are no government statistics. But we collected data from several media reports, which showed that in the five years since 2017, 304 accidents took place, while at least 560 people died.
The Daily Star sat with its chief coordinator Ashis Kumar Dey -- also general secretary of National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways -- to get more insights about the whole incident.
The Daily Star: The government has conducted its own probe. Why was the civil committee formed and what issues did it find?
Asish Kumar Dey: The committee, which consists of waterway experts, lawyers and environmentalists, emphasised on the reasons behind the incident and problems in management.
Initially, we tried to obtain the report of the government-led probe body to analyse it, but failed to acquire it, as the body did not publish its findings. We only found some details of the report through the media.
With our own probe, we found that while MV Abhijan-10 was registered by declaring that each engine was 1,100 British horsepower, it was actually 3,036 horsepower.
There was a lack of firefighting measures as well. For example, there should have been at least 12 fire hydrants on the launch, but we found only six, and those too were out of order.
DS: Who was responsible for the incident?
Dey: Of course, the launch owners and staffers like drivers and masters were responsible. However, we found that four government officials also didn't do their job properly, which led to the fire hazard.
During the annual fitness test, commonly known as a survey, all the issues should have surfaced. But the officials involved in the survey didn't fulfil their duties.
The launch could carry a maximum of 420 persons. But passengers said 800-1,000 were present on the launch at the time of the accident.
When a launch leaves a terminal, it has to take permission from BIWTA's marine safety and traffic management department. A master of the launch told officials that the vessel was carrying only 310 passengers, and the officials signed it off without checking, which violated the laws.
Three officials, including a traffic inspector and an official from the shipping ministry, were appointed to inspect launches there. The ministry official, however, said he was not present at Sadarghat terminal that day.
DS: What has been the situation of launch accidents in the last five years?
Dey: There are no government statistics. But we collected data from several media reports, which showed that in the five years since 2017, 304 accidents took place, while at least 560 people died.
Some factors are behind these incidents: the absence of efficient drivers and masters, not following the designs, carrying extra passengers and bad weather.
There are 14,000 registered vessels, but over two lakh are running now. This is another reason behind the accidents.
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