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Launch Trips Ahead of Eid

Owners press for right to overloading!

Staff Correspondent
Even though launches capsize mainly because of overloading, the owners yesterday demanded their vessels be allowed to carry more passengers than the government-set limit during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha.
They came up with the demand in a meeting with Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), law enforcers and Passengers' Welfare Association at the BIWTA conference room in the capital. The meeting was organised to ensure safety of passengers during their travel.
According to the launch owners, most of their vessels are capable of carrying more passengers than the number approved by the government.
"For example, I own a launch that can well operate with some 4,000 passengers on board but as per the documents it has the capacity of only 1200 people," said Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Waterways Passenger Carriers Association.
Such fixing of capacity is causing them a huge financial loss, he said.
However, Passengers' Welfare Association was against the demand of the launch owners.
BIWTA Chairman Samsuddoha Khondaker said: "It's true that in many cases the launch owners incur losses, if they carry passengers according to the documents.“
He said a committee consisting of the representatives of BIWTA, Department of Shipping, launch owners and law enforcers would be formed to keep an eye on the situation at Sadarghat terminal during the Eid rush.
The committee would force launches to leave the terminal once filled by the passengers.
In yesterday's meeting, the launch owners also demanded they be allowed to carry passengers on the rooftops of the launches during the Eid. However, the BIWTA chairman disapproved it.
In the previous years, the launch owners gave a 10 percent discount to the passengers travelling on the deck during Eids. But they are not making the offer this year.
Defending the launch owners' move, the BIWTA chairman said, "We are pressurising
them not to overload their launches. And now, if we put pressure on them for the discount too, it will surely be a burden on them."
Yesterday's meeting also decided no sand-laden watercraft would be allowed in the rivers for the five days ahead of Eid.
Law enforcers would also be deployed to ensure safety of passengers in terminals and to stop extortion on the river routes.
Officials of different government bodies concerned and stakeholders, among others, attended the meeting yesterday.