Editorial
Severe ferry dislocation
BIWTA caught on the wrong foot again
The choked ferry services along the Paturia-Daulatdia route on the Padma River have been exacting a heavy price. This cross-river ferry providing a link between the capital city and the southwestern districts carries a large number of passengers as well as goods.
Delays for hours at a time are resulting in huge backlogs in traffic. Trucks are waiting with perishable goods which are beginning to rot. Already, a substantial economic damage has been wreaked. Furthermore, the hardships passengers are enduring must also be taken seriously into account.
Rapid loss of navigability of the Padma and the Jamuna due to shoaling is a known fact. But to our dismay, nothing has been done to keep the channels clear through timely dredging. The level of water in some parts of the channels has dropped to five feet in place of the minimally stipulated eight feet for vessels to pass.
For all we know, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) had put out early warning signals to the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) for action to keep the channels navigable. But, the dredging operations started as late as on September 6. Now, while BIWTA has deployed three dredgers at Paturia and two at Mawa, these are having difficulty in negotiating with fast receding waters.
The lessons to be drawn here is, as usual, there was no advance planning to meet an unfolding exigency, far less coordination between BIWTC and BIWTA. The net result is: an expensive operation like dredging is being undertaken at a rather wrong time, entailing waste as well as ineffectiveness.
The government has formed two task forces of six members each to monitor and ensure easier movement of ferries on this route. However, the core issue of dredging up river channels before these have been choked up needs to be addressed with a right mix of policy, operational coordination and logistical backup.
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