Mismanagement hits Chandpur ferry service

Inadequate number of ferries and river erosion have resulted into acute congestion of vehicles at the Chandpur-Shariatpur ferry ghat.    Hundreds of vehicles have to remain stranded for hours and even for days on either sides of the Meghna river to cross it. Local Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) authority and lorry drivers fear that people’s sufferings would worsen during the upcoming Eid holidays.    Currently two ferries under BIWTC named Korovi and Kasturi are plying in the route that are very old and often remain out of service due to technical problems. A month back another ferry Kishori was left with technical problems for two months.    Kasturi was repaired few days back which cost Tk600,000. Manager of BIWTC ghat office Imran Khan said the condition of Korovi is not good. A letter asking for ferries was sent to the high authority ten days before but no reply yet.    It takes six hours to take a round trip and three hours to take a single trip while usually it takes 1-1.5 hours to cross the river. A ferry has to travel around 18km as the old channel is closed. It has not been opened despite the overflow in Meghna during the monsoon.    Deputy Director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Chandpur, Shahjahan said, the pontoon and ramp of Shariatpur has been raised. The old channel cannot be opened now as it doesn’t have enough navigability. The authority is going to take necessary steps for dredging.  Iqbal, who got stuck in the Harina ghat yesterday, said he was not sure if he could get a ferry to reach Barisal. He came from Chittagong with 13 tons of wheats.   Coming from Chittagong, truck driver Sohag said, he was go to Khulna with his rod laden truck. He couldn’t cross the river for two days as ferry was not available.   Some drivers alleged that the ghat authority is intentionally procrastinating in taking steps. Moreover, the contractors’ group of the ghat are managing ferries through unfair means.   Locals said, there was a floating workshop in the Harina ghat on Chandpur-Shariatpur route that sank due to river erosion last year. Since then no workshop has been built on the ghat to repair pontoon, ramp and ferries. It takes hours to get them repaired from the workshops in Narayanganj or Chandpur.   There is a possibility that the Harina ghat will be separated by river erosion anytime. The vehicles are plying on the pontoons and ramps with high risk.  When contacted BIWTA chairman Dr Shamsuddoha Khandker said, he does not know anything about these problems. He will look into the  matter.   BIWTC chairman Mojibur Rahman said, they had plan for allocating a new ferry on the route before Eid. But there were some technical problems in the ferry that they were trying to overcome.   The Chandpur-Shariatpur ferry service on the Meghna River was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000. It was built to link 25 districts from both the southern and western areas of the country with the port city Chittagong.