Thick fog yesterday blanketed most parts of the country, disrupting normal life and delaying a number of flight schedules and hampering waterway communications.
Huge traffic congestion was created on both sides of Mawa-Kawrakandi and Paturia-Daulatdia ghats following the disruption of the waterway services.In Chittagong, ship movement at Chittagong Sea Port and flight operations at Shah Amanat International Airport were disrupted due to dense fog.
Three vessels from the port’s outer anchorage got their berths at the port jetties around 2:30pm, which were scheduled to be berthed in the morning, said sources in its radio control room.
Seven more outgoing vessels scheduled to leave the port in the morning remained stranded till 2:30pm, they said.
Meanwhile, three flights of Novo, Regent and United Airways were delayed to reach the Chittagong airport from Dhaka by about two hours due to the fog, said Noor-E-Alam, the airport manager.
When contacted, sources of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital said flight operations at the airport were interrupted for the fog.
In Munshiganj, ferry services on the Mawa-Kawrakandi route in the Padma river came to a halt for over seven hours since 2:30am.
Authorities suspended the ferry services due to a thick blanket of fog over the river, said Sirajul Haque, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Mawa.
Seven ferries were forced to anchor in the mid-river for hours after being unable to see through thick fog, stranding about 600 vehicles on both sides, reports our Munshiganj correspondent.
Ferry services on the Paturia-Daulatdia route remained suspended for over three hours due to poor visibility caused by dense fog, our Manikganj correspondent reported.
Bidyut Kumar Saha, manager (commerce) of BIWTC at Aricha ghat, said ferry services and plying of other water vessels at the ghat were suspended from about 6:00am because of poor visibility.
Five ferries got stuck in the middle of the Padma river for the suspension.
Around 500 goods-laden vehicles and buses had to wait on both sides of the ghat for the halt to the ferry services, creating huge tailbacks on both the sides.
The ferry services resumed around 9:30am.
-With The Daily Star input
