Meeting with Minister
Launch owners agree to relax rotation system after 7 years
Owners of launches plying Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal river route agreed to temporarily relax the 'rotation system' for the vessels, seven years after imposition of the system, following a tripartite meeting presided over by Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan at the ministry on Sunday.
"After the tripartite discussions, the launch owners agreed to put, for the time being, 4-5 launches in service from each end of the route every day instead of 2-3 launches," said Saidur Rahman Rintu, vice president of launch owners association.
Complete and permanent end of the rotation system would be considered in future after surveying the rush of passengers and profit and loss of the vessel owners operating on this route, said Rintu, also owner of triple-deck Sundarban launch fleet and president of Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industries.
Barisal City Corporation Mayor and city Awami League (AL) convener Shawkat Hossain Hiron, AL lawmakers Talukdar Md Yunus and Monirul Islam Moni, JP lawmaker Golam Kibria, shipping Secretary Abdul Mannan Howladar, representatives of passengers and launch owners and officials of local civil and police administrations attended the meeting.
An 11-member review committee headed by Md Alauddin, joint secretary of shipping ministry, and comprising administrative officials and representatives of launch owners association and citizens, has been formed.
They will conduct a survey considering the demands of both passengers and vessel owners and submit report within a month.
According to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority sources, 13 launches have route permits and so, six launches are supposed to ply from each end of Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal route.
But only two to three launches started plying the route from each end every day as the launch owners' association imposed 'rotation system' on February 14 in 2005, violating of the conditions for route permits.
The vessel owners said each of the 13 triple-deck launches has capacity to carry 760-1220 passengers (including 20-25 percent cabin and sofa seats) and at least 4500-5000 passengers per day is required to run six launches from each end.
Saidur Rahman Rintu, vice president of the launch owners association, claimed that total number of passengers never exceed 2500 from each end on normal days although there is rush of cabin passengers on the route every weekend and holidays.
"We had to decrease the number of launches by imposing rotation system to avoid losses as operating cost per one way trip for each vessel stands at Tk 1.5 lakh," he said.
"Now we request the authority to conduct survey on the poor number of deck passengers that causes us huge losses daily," said Riaz Hossain, owner of Suravi lunch fleet.
On the other hand, the BCC mayor and other representatives on behalf of the passengers posed the question why newly built launches worth cores of taka are floated for service on the route if they sustain losses and why their route permits would not be cancelled if they fail to follow rules and regulations of the government.
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