Waterways lone safe travel option

With arson and sabotage by opposition blockaders pushing road and rail communications to the verge of collapse, waterways have become the only safe option for travel between the capital and the rest of the country.
However, the number of daily passengers, unable to reach launch terminals in the first place, dropped by nearly 50 percent during the blockades from November 26 to Tuesday, except Friday, informed launch owners and staff.
During this period, over 29 percent of trips between Sadarghat Launch Terminal and Chandpur, Barisal, Patuakhali, Barguna and other southern districts was cancelled, as per Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
On a regular day, around 50,000 passengers and 128 launches pass through Sadarghat.
“Though blockaders tried to prevent launches from setting sail in some places on the blockade's first day, service has been normal till date,” Badiuzzaman Badal, chief adviser, Bangladesh Inland Waterways Association, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, addressing a press briefing at the ministry, said, “Launch and ferry services are running smoothly and our efforts are on against any kind of sabotage.”
Mosharraf Hossain, general secretary of a fish traders' association of the capital's Karwan Bazar, said fish was arriving over the waterways as usual although it was a negligible amount compared to that coming over the roads.
A Chandpur-bound garment worker, Mainuddin, told The Daily Star at Sadarghat yesterday that four of the nine days he took as leave to see his mother went to waste as the blockade kept him confined in his Daudkandi home.
“Though I was in fear while coming to Sadarghat by bus, I am feeling quite relaxed as a journey by launch is much safer,” he said.