The highest number of passengers—totalling one-and-a-half lakh—left Barishal for Dhaka after spending their Eid Ul Azha leave in Barishal and nearby areas yesterday (Saturday).
No less than 19 triple-deck direct launches, including day service, and two steamers and 10 via launches left Barishal for Dhaka with over one-and-a-half lakh passengers. The heavy pressure of Eid passengers returning from their villages to their workplaces could be seen crowding the Barishal port area from Saturday morning to night. Nearly all the 29 high-length private river vessels and two state-owned steamers were overloaded with passengers, and that, too, in the presence of the Barishal port authorities, flouting the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority’s (BIWTA’s) orders. At one stage, many passengers of private launches missed their trips as overloaded vessels were forced to leave the port a couple of hours before the scheduled time. They later boarded the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) vessels.
A visit to the Barishal river port revealed that a large number of passengers were going back home as they had not got space on the launches. Many passengers were seen leaving Barishal on the roofs of the vessels.
Md Azmal Huda Mithu, deputy director (river safety and traffic management) of BIWTA in Barishal, said: “According to our estimates, more than four lakh passengers arrived in and left Barishal through waterways to observe the Eid Ul Azha vacation this year. On Saturday, we saw the highest number of passengers at a time.” He added, however, that a large number of Eid passengers left Barishal on Thursday itself to avoid the heavy rush.
A huge number of passengers, even after reaching the port within the scheduled time of departure of the Dhaka-bound vessels, failed to board them as law enforcement agencies ordered overloaded launches to sail away two hours before the scheduled time to ensure the safety and security of the passengers, some passengers alleged.
The Barishal Port Authority operated a control room at the terminal to monitor the situation. A large number numbers of police personnel, armed battalions and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel were engaged to tackle the situation.
A Barishal port officer said the authorities tried to deal with the Eid rush by obtaining three Dhaka-bound triple-deck water transports from other ports to touch Barishal port and by introducing day service.