Cold, fog at Mawa make ferry passengers miserable
Dense fog for five hours between 3am and 8am yesterday forced six ferryboats, operated by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) between Kewrakandi and Shimulia, to halt mid-river. As a result, hundreds of passengers, waiting to cross the Padma, were forced to pass the early hours of the day amid chilly winds that brought the minimum temperature down to 12 degrees Celsius in Dhaka city. BIWTC sources at Shimulia said the boats finally managed to resume sailing after 8am, when the sun came out.
This brought relief to the people on the two banks of the river, as well as the ferries that were bringing in fresh supplies of perishables from the south-western part of the country to the capital. Those travelling between Paturia at Aricha and Daulatdia across the Padma were fortunate, as the ferryboats could sail without trouble, BIWTC sources at the Paturia terminal said. The fog also caused difficulties for other modes of transport, especially the night coaches and trucks travelling from the south-western and north-western regions towards the capital. They had to use headlights to negotiate their way, passengers said. Meanwhile, sources at the meteorological department said the fog situation would persist. The cold wave, varying between mild and moderate degrees, blowing over the north-eastern, north-western and south-western regions, yesterday brought the mercury down to 6.5 degrees Celsius in the rice-growing plains of north-western Badalgachi, followed by 7.1 degrees Celsius in Srimangal. However, met office sources said the night chill could become less intense, thanks to the arrival of easterly clouds from the Bay of Bengal.
But they expected the day temperature to remain mainly unchanged till today morning, with fog hanging over the river basins and wetlands.
