Ferry disorder often turns trip to Kuakata repulsive
The only ferry plying across Sonatala River at Hazipur on Kalapara- Kuakata road lay stranded for hours in mid river as the only functional engine of the two-engine vessel went out of order on Friday. Photo: STAR
All the five ferries operating on three routes of Kuakata-Kalapara road often go out of order, much to the sufferings of locals as well as tourists to Kuakata sea beach. Vehicles often get stuck for long hours due to the situation, making journey to the picturesque tourist spot a repulsive one. There are three ferry routes on 22 km long Kuakata-Kalapara road -- Kalapara on Andharmanik River, Hazipur on Sonatala River and Mohipur on Shibbaria River. The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) runs two ferries each at Mohipur and Kalapara and one at Hazipur. All the five ferries are designed to run with two engines but each of them uses a single engine as one in every ferry has remained permanently dysfunctional for long. Disruption of ferry service on the routes has become a regular matter as the single engines often go out of order due to the extra load. At about 5:00am on Friday, the ferry on Hazipur route, carrying eight vehicles including buses, private cars and trucks, went out of order in the mid river and moved about 3 km away under the impact of the low tide, leaving over two hundred passengers in great anxiety. Later mechanics from Patuakhali ferry divisional office fixed the engine and the ferry service resumed at noon. Around midnight the same day, the engine again went out of order and mechanics were able to run it at about 7:00am on Saturday. "I along with my wife and two children had to suffer a lot as we got stranded at Hazipur ferry ghat from 7:00am to 12 noon on Friday," said Rezaul Haque, who was going from Dhaka to Kuakata as a tourist. The government should ensure better ferry service on the road considering the interest of tourists, he said. "One of the two engines has remained dysfunctional for one year and we have to run the ferry with the remaining one that is also in a bad condition for lack of renovation. Very often it stops functioning," said Chan Mia, driver of a ferry on the route. Md Mojibur Rahman, supervisor of the ferry, said the ferry went out of order as many as four times in a week, leaving a large number of vehicles including passenger buses, private cars and trucks stranded on both sides of the terminal. Md Alim, driver of a passenger bus plying Kuakata-Barisal route, said, "We have to suffer greatly as ferry service on the three routes is in a very bad condition. When a ferry goes out of order, many passengers leave buses and cross the river on country boats to go to their destination. This causes us serious losses." When contacted, Md Mozammel Haque, sub-divisional engineer (Ferry) of Patuakhali RHD, said, "Import of spare parts of these Germany and England made ferry engines have remained stopped and so, we try to run the engines with country-made parts. But they do not function properly and disruption of the ferry service has become a common scene here." "The problem will be solved when the ongoing work for construction of bridges across the three rivers completes. But it will take several years," he added.
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