Transport on the Dhaka-Barisal-Morelganj (of Khulna) route has been disrupted as three out of the four rocket steamers and other sea-trucks of the Bangladesh Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) have been out of service for a few days.
The sea-truck service on the Barisal-Lakshmipur route has been disrupted since Monday. The peddle steamer PS Ostrich that travels to Morelganj went out of order on Tuesday. On the same day another peddle steamer PS Lepcha went out of order due to a mechanical fault while it was heading to Dhaka.
PS Mahsud, another passenger carrying vessel of BIWTC, has been out of order for last three months.
The service of the sea-truck ST Khizir-8 has been interrupted due to engine troubles on the Barisal-Bhola-Lakshmipur route since last Monday.
Passengers have felt the brunt of the delays and irregular service cause by the current crisis.
At the same time, they fear that if the BIWTC does not increase the number of steamers ahead of Eid, when the rush of passengers reaches its peak, it may be very difficult for travellers.
Yusuf Abdullah, a PS Ostrich passenger, said because four steamers were out of service, passengers have been taking alternative routes, having to break their journey several times and this costs extra money. Harunor Rashid, a passenger of PS Lepcha, said they hardly got a steamer in time.
Gopal Chandra Majumdar, assistant manager of the BIWTC Barisal station, said they were trying to get the steamers back in service as soon as possible.
Kamal Mitra, Barisal station engineer of the BIWTC, said a technical team was working to repair PS Ostrich’s mechanical problems. Mojibor Rahman, chairman of the Barisal BIWTC was hoping that they would be able to repair all the steamers to operate Eid special trips.
