Transport Sector Authorities: Each tragedy exposes their incompetence
Whenever a tragic incident hits the transport sector claiming people's lives, a dismal picture of irregularities, mismanagement, and incompetence of the authorities gets exposed.
Be it a fire incident, a launch or ferry capsize, or a road or train accident, each of them becomes a topic of public discussion. The regulatory bodies seem to come to its senses, taking no time in forming probe committees.
The committees, indeed, unearth some irregularities and mismanagement and make recommendations, but those are left to be forgotten until a major incident occurs again.
Interestingly though, after most of the incidents, cases are filed against errant drivers or owners and, sometimes, lower-tier staffers of government agencies face music.
Top government officials, however, are never held responsible for their failures in preventing the incidents, which, according to experts, demonstrate the poor state of governance in the sector.
"The setup of the regulatory bodies is not functioning effectively. Their presence remains only on paper," noted transport expert Prof Moazzem Hossain told The Daily Star yesterday.
"Every time after a major accident, we come to know that the procedures were continuing in an uncontrolled manner. It happens mainly due to a lack of accountability," he said, adding, "If you want to change the situation, the authorities must be made accountable."
FAILURE EXPOSED AGAIN
Violation of rules and the authorities' failure to check it came to the fore once again after fire ravaged a launch early Friday killing at least 41 people and injuring more than 100 others.
The tragic incident happened in the Sugandha river as MV Abhijan-10 was on its way to Barguna from Dhaka.
Preliminary investigation later revealed that the owner changed two engines of the launch without taking permission from the authorities, violating the rules.
A shipping ministry probe committee also found faults in the engines.
The launch authorities modified the engine room to install a larger-than-approved engine. The master and drivers who were operating the vessel at the time of the incident were not authorised for the job either, according to investigation.
Although two government authorities -- Department of Shipping and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) -- were supposed to check such illegal practices, both of them have failed to do their job, said transport experts.
This is not an isolated incident.
On 29, 2020, Mayur-2 hit a smaller vessel and caused it to sink in the Buriganga, leaving 34 people dead. Investigation later found that a novice, not the designed driver, was at the helm.
A BIWTA probe body held two masters and two drivers of Mayur-2 launch responsible for the accident and made 16 recommendations, including providing training to launch masters and drivers properly, installing modern technology in launches to prevent such accidents in future.
But after the MV Abhijan-10 incident, it has been learnt that its staff members did not know how to use fire extinguishers.
The crew members simply abandoned the vessel, letting it drift downstream for over half an hour as the inferno on the Sugandha lit up the night sky.
On October 27, a ferry carrying several vehicles tipped over at Paturia Ghat in Manikganj and laid half submerged in the Padma for over a week.
A shipping ministry investigation found that the ferry, named Shah Amanat, had no updated fitness clearance. Its economic life had expired too.
It was also found that 50 out 53 ferries, operated by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at that time, had not updated their fitness clearance. Most of their economic life was also over.
Similar examples of mismanagement, irregularities, and the authorities' lax monitoring are abundant in the road transport sector, leading to frequent loss of lives.
Deaths of two college students in a spate of a week triggered another major movement for road safety in the country late last month.
Documents of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) show that the Anabil Paribahan bus that ran over and killed SSC examinee Mainuddin Islam in the capital's Rampura on November 29 had neither a route permit nor an updated tax token.
Five days earlier, a Notre Dame student, Nayeem Hasan, was killed in another road accident. Later it was found that a part-time cleaner of Dhaka South City Corporation was driving the garbage truck which killed Nayeem.
The BRTA in July 2019 said 4.79 lakh vehicles were operating without fitness clearances at that time. More than eight lakh vehicles are eligible for annual fitness tests, but around two lakh of them did not take the test last fiscal year, show documents.
Many might question the standard of the manual tests because those are taken by only 109 inspectors.
BRTA is responsible for issuing fitness certificate, registration, driving licence and is supposed to ensure it through its mobile courts drive.
'THINGS NOT WORKING PROPERLY'
Prof Moazzem said BIWTA earns a huge amount of money as it gets allocation from the government, takes different fees from launch owners and charges everyone who enters the Sadarghat terminal Tk 10.
"So, passengers' safety must be its top priority. The authorities should deploy at least 40 inspectors at the Sadarghat terminal to ensure safety," he said.
In reality, BIWTA has only 25 traffic inspectors across the country and seven of them are deployed at Sadarghat. The shipping department has 18 inspectors in total and only one of them works at Sadarghat, said sources.
When BIWTA Chairman Golam Sadeq was asked whether they have adequate traffic inspectors, he did not give a clear answer.
"We are going to appoint some more traffic inspectors. But it is the launch owners who need to be more serious about passengers' safety," he said.
Replying to another question, he said the launch authorities must take permission for changing their drivers and masters if their names are not mentioned in the yearly declaration papers of drivers and masters.
"We will take action if any irregularities are found in this regard," he said.
The BIWTA chairman also said the owners are supposed to ensure fire safety inside their vessels. "However, we will arrange a meeting in this regard tomorrow [today] with launch owners," he said.
The owner of Abhijan-10 Hamjalal admitted that they changed the engine of the launch without informing the shipping department about it. He told this correspondent on Saturday that they were supposed to inform the department during a survey in February next year.
Shipping department's Chief Engineer and Ship Surveyor Manjurul Kabir said it was difficult for them to know about such changes in engine's design unless they are informed by the owners. Otherwise, they get to know these during the annual survey.
"Inspectors are supposed to check these matters, but they don't have the technical know-how to find these things properly," he said.
Besides, there are only six surveyors in the shipping department to survey around 14,000 registered vessels across the country. They have to check 51 elements of a passenger vessel.
"We give our best to check all passenger vessel," a surveyor told this correspondent, indicating that it is almost impossible for them to survey all vessels thoroughly.
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