It was a chilly night for passengers on the Padma river as hundreds of vehicles, including passenger buses, remained stranded on the Daulatdia-Paturia route from Thursday night to Friday morning.
The ferries got stuck on the Daulatdia-Paturia route due to dense fog. Some passengers who spent the night on the ferry said that it was a cold night.
Ferry and launches services through the Paturia-Daulatdia river route, the gateway to country’s South-Western region, were disrupted for nine hours. The disruption created a long traffic jam.
Thousands of passengers, including children and women of stranded vehicles amid chilling night suffered a lot for several hours on both sides of the Padma.
Mohiuddin Rashel, Assistant Manager (Commerce) of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Aricha sector, said that from the evening the waterways began to be covered in fog. The ferry services were disrupted as the channel became risky from mid-night.
A numbers ferries, along with vehicles and passengers were bound for anchored in the mid river of Padma, causing sufferings to the passengers of different vehicles for the hours.
Five ferries with hundreds of loaded trucks, buses and small vehicles along with passengers forced to strand at Paturia ghat, while six others passed the lazy time at Daulatdia ghat, because of near zero visibility.
The vessels reached their destinations after visibility was restored at about 9.00 am on Friday, the Manager (Commerce) added.
Over 800 coaches, buses, minibuses, privet cars and goods loaded trucks from Dhaka lined up at Paturia and Uthuli turning point in Shivalaya upazila of Manikganj district. Nearly 400 goods loaded trucks and 150 buses and small vehicles lined up at Daulatdia ferry ghat, they came from different southern district and were waiting for crossing the river Padma.
Deputy General Manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Aricha sector Zillur Rahaman said that dense fog is a natural disaster. “We have become helpless victims of for continue blanket of thick fog. The communication of the south and south-western region of the country with the capital city is being seriously hampering last couple of days,” he said.
He said, “The government is taking steps to remedy this. We will soon be relieved from this suffering.”
The river route has become risky as most of the marking signs on the routes remain inoperative. Almost all the beacon lights and buoys on the route have gone out of order, threatening safe movement of vessels, some ferry masters said.
Disruption of ferry services has become almost a daily affair in these ferry ghats in recent days since a mild cold spell gripped, sources said.
