Dredging on padma
5 more days to clear Shimulia to Kathalbari ferry route: BIWTA
As many as 10 dredgers were engaged in removing silt between Shimulia and Kathalbari on the Padma river, one of the busiest riverine routes in the country, to normalise ferry operations, officials said yesterday.
It would take five more days to clear the Shimulia-Kathalbari ferry route. It was difficult to keep the route navigable as one side was filling up quickly with silt as the other side was being cleared, said Saidur Rahman, superintendent engineer of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).
Rahman said the navigability problem arose following sudden decline of water in the river by 62 cm in the past 10 days. Following the dip in the water level, a sandbar, which is 4 km in length and 1,500 feet in width, has developed on the ferry route. We have to remove 32 lakh cubic metres of silt to clear the route, he added.
Sources said seven dredgers have been deployed by the BIWTA and three by the Bangladesh Navy to clear the sandbar.
The BIWTA official said that they have already created a bypass for the Shimulia-Kathalbari ferry route. Now, seven out of the total 20 ferries are operating on an alternate channel. We hope that all the ferries, including dumb, Ro Ro and K-type, would be able to operate from Friday afternoon, he added.
Meanwhile, around 300 vehicles are waiting to be ferried across the Padma at Shimulia and Kathalbari ferry terminals, creating long tailbacks at Mawa and Kathalbari. These vehicles are full of passengers returning to work after Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
We have requested the heavy vehicle owners to use the Paturia-Daulatdia ferry route instead of the Shimulia-Katalbari ferry route till the ferry services get normal here, Salam Hossain, manager of the Kathalbari ferry terminal, said.
