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Paturia-Daulatdia River Route

Ferry service comes to a halt

Star Report
Ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia route have remained suspended since Monday night due to rapid formation of underwater shoals and fierce currents in the Padma, forcing hundreds of vehicles to take long detours via the Bangabandhu Bridge on the Jamuna.
Roll-on roll-off ferry Bir Shrestha Matiur Rahman ran aground in Daulatdia channel around 9:45pm on Monday.
Although the ferry was extricated
around 7:00am yesterday, services could not be restored, said Abdul Matin, chief engineer of the dredging department of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).
Bidyut Kumar Saha, manager (commerce) of Bangladesh Inland Water
Transport Corporation (BIWTC), said around 600 heavy and light vehicles, mostly trucks, were waiting on either side yesterday afternoon.
Three small K-type ferries tried to make a trip along the route around 10:00am yesterday, but failed due to the strong currents, said Mohiuddin Rasel, assistant manager (commerce) at BIWTC.
The BIWTA, responsible for ensuring navigability by dredging channels, says the situation cannot be improved until the middle of this month, as dredging had to be stopped on Sunday due to the currents near Daulatdia terminal.
Despite the deployment of four dredgers on Friday, said the chief engineer, they failed to prepare a new channel.
Accompanied by the BIWTA and BIWTC chairmen, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan visited Paturia and Daulatdia terminals yesterday evening.
The minister said four ferries were shifted from the route to Mawa terminal, as many vehicles had been taking that route, our Manikganj correspondent reports.
On Monday, ro-ro ferries were making trips with half or even one-third the capacity.
B I WTA Chairman Shamsuddoha Khandaker said erosion upstream has worsened the situation. "Heavy silt from the eroded soil [from nearby villages] is accumulating so rapidly on the riverbed that shoals form within hours."
With the tailbacks on both the terminals becoming longer, several bus companies re-routed their services using Kushtia-Dhaka route via Bangabandhu Bridge.
Sharif Hasan, a driver of a private bus company, said the alternative route is costing the company an extra 131 litres of diesel a trip.
Meanwhile, BIWTA and BIWTC officials are blaming each other for failing to handle the situation.