M M Jasim :
Safety of launch passengers are at risk since those leave the terminals with passengers beyond capacity and unfit bodies everyday ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, which is just one week away.
All launches that left the capital’s Sadarghat terminal yesterday were over- crowded. Many of them were on roofs of the launches, which is at all unlawful.
Launch owners overload the passengers and operate the unfit launches in collaboration with some officials of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the Shipping Department (DOS), ignoring the Inland Shipping Ordinance (ISO)-1976, said a terminal source.
With the Eid approaching, there’s a growing fear that unscrupulous launch owners will operate unfit vessels, putting numerous lives at risk.
Like the past, many rundown vessels were going through extensive repairs, at different dockyards of Keraniganj Thana on the outskirts of the capital.
An official, on condition of anonymity said, most of these unfit vessels cruise on different inter-district routes outside Dhaka, as Sadarghat, the key launch terminal of the country, in the capital remains under strict monitoring of both the government and the media.
In the past, many unfit and unregistered vessels were operated ahead of Eid, causing serious accidents.
A report of Safe Waterway Implementation Movement, a non-government organisation, published last year says that over 6,000 passengers died in 535 accidents in the last two decades.
BIWTA officials said, a vessel can carry 800 to 1,500 passengers on an average. During Eid, each vessel carries about three times excess passengers beyond capacity.
Prof Mir Tareque Ali of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said, the process of examining vessels’ fitness is faulty and vessels are not even properly inspected most of the times.
As per law, ship surveyors of the Department of Shipping (DoS) issue registration and annual fitness certificates after surveying vessels. No unregistered vessels can get route permit from Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).
Traffic Inspectors of the BIWTA are responsible for checking the route permit when a vessel anchors at a port.
Badiuzzaman Badal, Senior Vice-Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (Passenger Carriers) Association told The New Nation that, “We can assure you that no unfit vessel will operate during the Eid rush.”
“We have given strict directives to all the launch owners not to sail any unregistered or unfit vessel,” he said.
Meanwhile, the tickets for launch cabins are allegedly supplied to black marketeers secretly to make extra bucks. “I went to different launch counters to book two cabins. I was told first that there was no ticket. But some employees later demanded extra money for the cabins,” said Abdur Razzak who intends to go to his village home in Patuakhali during the Eid.
Seeking anonymity, an official of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said, “No system or rule works in the two or three days ahead of Eid because of massive rush of passengers. What can we do?”
Around 10 to 12 lakh people leave Dhaka in seven days before Eid by launches to more than 50 destinations in the southern part of the country every year.
It may be mentioned that Bangladesh Inland Water Transport (BIWTA) of the district has decided that it will not sail overloaded vessels in the rivers in the days of upcoming Eid.
