Thousands suffer as 6 ferries run aground
Huge traffic jam at Daulatdia terminal
Two salvage ships are in operation on the Padma to free Ro Ro ferry Shah Poran, one of the five ferries, ran around in the shoals of the river, below, hundreds of vehicles, including passenger buses, remain stranded on the road leading to Daulatdia terminal.Photo: STAR
Five ferries ran aground in the shoals of the river Padma creating a huge traffic jam at Daulatdia ferry terminal. Around one thousand vehicles including buses remained stranded on the road for hours, much to the sufferings of the passengers. BIWTC office sources said, Ro Ro ferry Shah Poran and Shah Ali started from Daulatdia for Paturia at around 4:00pm and got stuck in a shoal. Rescue boat Ashai-1 freed Shah Ali while Ashai-1 and another boat rescued Shah Poran at around 5:00pm. Earlier, three ferries got stuck in the shoals till noon. Ro Ro ferry Shah Jalal started for Paturia from Daulatdia with 24 vehicles including passenger buses in the morning but it stuck up in a shoal near Ghat No. 3. Ro Ro ferry Shah Mokhdum with vehicles also got struck in the shoal while trying to rescue Shah Jalal. The two ferries were rescued after one and a half hours. Ferry Birshrestha Hamidur Rahman also remained stranded in a shoal near the terminal for about two hours after starting from Daulatdia for Paturia. Meanwhile, the BIWTA started to remove sand with the help of two dredgers on Tuesday to keep the channel fit for ferry movement. Ferries need at least eight feet water to move but there is only 7 feet water in most of the one kilometre area near Daulatdia ghat. Besides passenger buses, hundreds of trucks lined up on the 5-kilometre road as the truckyard was full of vehicles. The trucks have been waiting for the last four to five days, the drivers said. Our Munshiganj correspondent adds: A ferry with forty vehicles was rescued three and a half hours after it got stuck in a shoal on Mawa-Kawrakandi route yesterday, causing immense sufferings to about 1,000 passengers. The Mawa-bound ferry 'Bhasha Shaheed Barkat' ran aground at Markhanda channel in the Padma river at around 12:45pm and it was rescued by IT 394 ferry at 4:30pm, said Sirajul Haque, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Mawa.
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