The government initiative to revive the capital’s circular waterway communication in a bid to reduce pressure on the Dhaka city roads has fallen through for lack of adequate number of waterbuses and proper government initiatives.
According to official sources in the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation, BIWTC launched two waterbuses — Turag and Buriganga — on the Aminbazar-Sadarghat water route on August 28 as part of the government initiative to reactivate the capital’s circular waterway service.
Within one month and 10 days of launching the service, one of them, Buriganga, went out of order for mechanical glitches and remained out of service since then, said the sources.
According to the sources, the waterbuses, built by Bangladeshi company Three-Angel Marine Consultant at a cost of Tk 1.11 crore and each having 35 seats, were scheduled to be available at four landing stations — Gabtali, Swarighat, Kholamura and Sadarghat on the 16km route — every tow hours from 7:00am to 6:00pm every day.
But presently, the only active waterbus, Turag, makes only two up and down trips on the route – one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, they said, adding that the waterbus gets a few passengers presently.
‘The only waterbus comes to Gabtali BIWTA landing station at around 9:00am and at around 3:00pm every day with only 10 to 15 passengers and leaves the station for Sadarghat with the same number of passengers,’ said Md Golam Mostofa, a trader near the Gabtali landing station.
He said a huge number of passengers would come to the landing station to use the waterbuses just after opening the service in August and observed that if the number of waterbuses was increased, the waterway could also play an important role in lessening the pressure on the city roads.
An official source in the BIWTC said they were hopeless with only one waterbus in the water route and observed that at least six waterbuses were needed to keep the route active.
He said Buriganga is now at the Narayanganj dockyard of its construction company, Three-Angel Marine Consultant, and there was uncertainty about when the repair work would be completed.
‘I am going to Gabtoli bus terminal to go to Sadarghat by bus as there is no certainty that the waterbus would come,’ said Mohammad Hossain, a day labourer who came with four members of his family to the Gabtoli landing station at around 1:00pm on Sunday to go to Sadarghat by waterbus.
BIWTC assistant general manager Jillur Rahman, talking to New Age, said he was not sure about the time when Buriganga would be put in operation after repair work and admitted that they were getting a few passengers currently.
