5 sea trucks idle on coastal routes
Five out of eight sea trucks deployed by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) on the risky coastal routes for safe navigation of people have gone out of order.
Sea truck, St Khizir-2 is now under repair at BIWTC Dockyard-1 since June 14 while St Khizir-4 is being repaired at BIWTC Dockyard-2 since December 30 last year. St Khizir-5, plied on Charchenga-Charbata route is under repair at Chittagong dock since last month.
St Khizir-6, plied on Mirzakalu-Charkalekha route is being repaired at BIWTC dockyard in Barisal since November 8. St Khizir-8, plied on Barisal- Bhola- Laxmipur route is under repair at BIWTC dockyard in Barisal since November 21.
The situation has not only endangered lives of hundreds of passengers plying along the routes but is also hindering transportations of relief materials to the Sidr affected areas.
The situation is likely to worsen in near future during the ensuing Eid-ul-Azha vacation, related sources said.
The sea trucks went out of order due to lack of proper maintenances by BIWTC and other operators who took lease of the vessels. Crisis of spare parts has also attributed to the situation, related sources said.
When contacted, the chairman of BIWTC, A S M Ali Kabir and the station manager of Barisal, Khalid Newaz said they would take immediate steps to deploy the sea trucks on the coastal routes after repair work.
BIWTC sources said four sea trucks (St Khizir-1, St Khizir-2, St Khizir-3 and St Khizir-4) were built at a private dockyard in Chittagong during 2000-2001. Four other sea trucks (St Khizir-5, St Khizir-6, St Khizir-7 and St Khizir-8) were collected from China under credit schemes.
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