As three out of four vessels of the long route rocket steamer service of the Bangladesh Water Transport Corporation have remained out of order, seriously threatening the service as Eid draws near.
Meanwhile, the sea-truck service on the Barisal-Laxmipur route has also remained disrupted after the only vessel of the route went out of order on Monday.Peddle steamer PS Ostrich went out of order after a part of its wheel broke down into the River Kacha near Tealikhali under Bhandaria upazila of Pirojpur on way to Morelganj on Tuesday.
Besides, another peddle steamer PS Lepcha went out of order for mechanical faults at Barsal River Port the same day on way to Dhaka.
Peddle Steamer PS Mahsud, another passenger carrying vessel of BIWTC on the route, went to dockyard about three months ago, the BIWTC sources said.
So now three out of four BIWTC vessels on the Dhaka-Barisal-Khulna (Morelganj) route remained out of service, making it hard to maintain the regular schedule by only PS Turn, which is also in a very critical condition.
Gopal Chandra Majumdar, assistant manager of the BIWTC Barisal station, acknowledging the fact, said PS Lepcha might leave Barisal for Dhaka Wednesday night for further check up.
PS Mahsud was released from the dockyard on Sunday and date when it would resume operation on the route was yet to be fixed, he told.
BIWTC station engineer Kamal Mitra said one technical team, led by engine mechanic Lokman Hossain, was sent to repair the mechanical faults of PS Ostrich.
If the initiative fails, the stranded steamer will have to be tugged to the BIWTC dockyard in Narayanganj and it will take longer time to put it in service as its bearing, shaft and other mechanical faults have to be repaired, said the BIWTC engineer.
BIWTC sources said bearing and engine glitch of sea-truck ST Khizir-8 caused disruption of service on the Barisal-Bhola-Laxmipur route since Monday last.
BIWTC chairman Mojibor Rahman, however, said MV Sela would be placed on the rocket service route immediately to continue the service schedules. Other vessels would also be repaired and checked for operating on Eid special trips.
Passengers of the stranded BIWTC vessels PS Ostrich and PS Lepcha have been suffering greatly for delay, break of journey, extra costing, shortage of water, food and sanitation facilities on the vessel and port.
The passengers expressed their fear about the special trip during Eid vacations when the authorities are failing to operate the regular service properly.
-With New Age input
