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Path ria-Dali laid ia Link

Ferry ghat needs shifting

Place for sedimentation moves down to Daulatdia

PiNAKi Roy
The Daulatdia ferry ghat may need to be shifted from its current location in a year or two, as the Padma river is gradually changing its point of confluence with the Jamuna downwards, causing massive erosion and leaving sediments in the riverbed near the ferry ghat.
The navigability on the Paturia-Daulatdia river route has fallen due to deposition of silt, causing frequent disruptions to ferry service.
The point of confluence of the two mighty rivers has shifted gradually by nearly 16 kilometres from Kazirhat to the north of Daulatdia in the last four decades since 1973, says Centre for Geographical and Information System (CEGIS).
Dr Maminul Haque Sarker, deputy executive director of the CEGIS, said the confluence is now near Daulatdia. It is generating huge currents in the Padma that has eroded its right bank two kilometres upwards from Daulatdia.
Huge sedimentation occurs near the ferry ghat due to the erosion, he said. Meanwhile, the BIWTA has started operating small ferries on the Paturia-Daulatdia route after ferry services were suspended since Monday night due to rapid forming of shoals and fierce currents in the Padma. Hundreds of vehicles were forced to take long detours via the Bangabandhu Bridge on the Jamuna river to reach their destinations.
"It would take some time to operate bigger ferries. The BIWTA has to dredge up to seven feet to make the route navigable for bigger ferries," said Abdul Matin, chief engineer of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), who was stationed at Daulatdia yesterday afternoon.
The erosion has affected 10 villages, and nearly 2,500 houses have already been lost to the Padma in the north of Daulatdia, said Matin.
Sarker, one of the top hydrologists in the country, said there is nothing unusual about the Padma changing its point of confluence, as it is happening due to natural oscillation process of the Ganges.
"If this trend continues, the ferry ghat might have to be shifted from the current location," he said.
"This type of oscillation of river is natural. It would be possible to dredge to remove sediments once the velocity of currents weakens," Sarker observed.
The velocity of currents near Daulatdia is about five and a half nautical miles or 11 kilometres per hour, he said.
News reports say recent heavy rainfall in the Ganges basin in India has increased the water level of the Ganges that enters
Bangladesh through Chapainawabganj.
According to the website of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, water level at the Goalanda point has now reached 7.94 metres and
it is still going up. The Padma was flowing nine centimetres above the danger mark in Rajshahi yesterday, and this trend will continue for the next 72 hours, it said.
Paturia-Daulatdia is
one of the most important southbound ferry routes in the country, as hundreds of vehicles cross by ferries the Padma river, which is about three kilo-metres wide at the Daulatdia-Paturia point.