Are not they scared of disasters?

It incurred a loss of over Tk one lakh taka in the trips.

The daytime trip was introduced after the M V Nasrin-1 sank in Meghna on the route on the night of July 8,killing at lease 600 people.

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But the daytime trip has proved loss-making as passengers do not prefer this schedule, BIWTA sources said.

If his situation continues, BIWTC's loss in this route will exceed Tk 3.3 lakh a month, they said.

MV Shela, was withdrawn from the profitable Dhaka-Barisal-Khulna route and placed in the new route on July 19 to ensure safety of passengers.

Although the first six trips were free, only 504 passengers availed those till July 24.

In the rest eight trips till August 3, only around 220 passengers travelled by Shela and BIWTC collected Tk 12,712 fare from these trips, they said.

The highest number of passengers in a Barisal-bound trip was 59 on July 28, and Tk 3,200 was realised as fare. On its return journey on July 30, the ship carried only eight passengers, they said.

Shela's fuel cost for a round trip is Tk 22,000 and it lost over Tk 3.3 lakh in 15 round trips in a month.

The total operational loss will exceed TK 5 lakh per month if other costs are added.

Shela used to earn a profit of over Tk 5 lakh in a month in the DkakaBraisal-Khulna route, they said.

Private launch operators in Dhaka-Barisal route said they are not interested in daytime trips as those are not profitable.