Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan has again got the taste of dense fog woes disrupting ferry movement in the Padma river.
The minister spent from around 10pm on Sunday to 11am yesterday in the stuck ferry the ferry, he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
His entourage said he spent hours sleeping in the VIP cabin of the ferry. The minister faced same situation along the Kaurakandi-Shimulia route last year.
The minister started for Dhaka after attending various programmes at his Madaripur 2 constituency on Sunday.
There is no direct land route to Dhaka and so everybody has to cross the Padma river to come to Dhaka by water vessels, including ferries and launches.
Since the minister was coming to Dhaka in his car, he had to get into a ferry to cross the river in order to come to Dhaka city.
After the ferry reached Banglabazar around 10pm on Sunday, it had to be anchored there because there was no visibility due to dense fog, according to the ferry operator.
Apart from the ferry the minister was travelling in, eight others were stuck in the river on the same night. The ferries began operating around 11am after visibility returned to normalcy.
BIWTC Manager at Korakandi ferry pier Salam Hossain said the ferry had to be anchored because there was no visibility due to dense fog in the mid river.
There was no police escort when the minister was crossing the river by ferry.
This came in question why he was not given any protection while ferrying across the river. He even did not have any police escort when he faced same situation last year.
When Madaripur Superintendent of Police Khandker Faridul Islam was asked about the minister’s security, he said the minister was usually given police escort until he got into a ferry from this side because he received police protection soon after crossing the river.
It was not different even on Sunday. However, when police heard of him, a 10-member team from Shibchar police station was sent out for escorting him, he said.
Former State Minister for Labour Begum Munnujan Sufian and former Khula city mayor Talukder Abdul Khalek also got stuck in the mid river due to dense fogs disrupting the ferry movements in the river last year.
