A triple-deck water transport plying on the Dhaka-Barisal route with more than 1500 passengers was stuck in a shoal of the Meghna River for 11 hours due to dense fog.
The launch MV Parabat-9, starting out from Sadarghat at about 9pm on Thursday reached Barisal at 4pm Friday, about 11 hours after the scheduled time.
A large number of students travelling in that vessel failed to attend the intake examination under National University due to the delay. This led to a clash between the agitated passengers and the launch crew injuring at least four.
Md Selim, ghat supervisor of the launch said, crews of the vessel had lost visibility at 2am yesterday as dense fog covered the river route and anchored it near Miar Char at the border of the Hizla-Mehendiganj upazilas.
“When they were about to start their journey onwards after the fog cleared, they discovered that the launch was stuck on a shoal,” he said adding that the launch was freed when water level increased due to high tide at around 1pm.
The 11-hour delay caused sufferings to the 1500 stranded passengers regarding health, food and sanitation.
Moin Hossain Asif, one of the passengers of the launch, said many young passengers were scheduled to attend the exams but could not do so as the launch was stuck in the shoal.
When passengers protested operating the vessel without experienced crew and proper safety measures, the launch staff members misbehaved and swooped on the protesting passengers injuring at least four.
“Port officials and launch owners also failed to send an another vessel to rescue us even after repeated requests over mobile phone,” Moin added.
However, Abul Bashar Majumdar, deputy director (river and traffic management safety) of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority at Barisal said the vessel was already freed from the shoal during high tide while they were taking preparations to evacuate the passengers.
He further added that the vessel was running without fog lights and water depth measuring sonar equipment defying BIWTA guideline.
About shoals remaining unmarked, Abul Bashar said the Miar Char emerged recently and BIWTA did not have enough manpower and technology to regularly keep track of shoals.
