Passengers’ suffering mounts

Dhaka- Barisal Eid special service ends

The Eid special service with river vessels, which had begun on June 30, ended last night.
The highest number of passengers—around 3,00,000—left Barisal for Dhaka over the past four nights on 24 launches and a state-owned steamer after celebrating Eid Ul Fitr.
Sources with the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) claimed that the highest number of return passengers on the occasion of Eid—around 100,000—travelled from Barisal to Dhaka on Tuesday, the last day of the Eid special launch services. Many of them purchased deck tickets from the black market.
Sources said a large number of passengers, however, failed to embark on the launches and steamers. All the vessels left Barisal port around 7pm, two hours before the scheduled time of departure, for the last three days. A mobile team, led by an executive magistrate, on seeing the rush of passengers, ordered the vessels to leave the ghats within 7pm.
On his visit to the Barisal launch ghat yesterday morning, this reporter found a huge gathering of Dhaka-bound passengers in the ghat area and there was no space even in the terminal. Thousands of Eid returnees took up positions on the roofs of all the Dhaka-bound launches in the Barisal ghat. Some were seen jumping from one launch to another in a risky manner for securing some space.
In the absence of a proper law to curb sale of launch cabin tickets on the black market, the police failed to do their duty.
Khaza Ikbal, official of Parabat launch group, denied responsibility for the black marketing of tickets. “Some influential people had taken tickets from us and later sold those on the black market,” he claimed.
Such black marketeers are very influential and form a ticket syndicate every Eid. A section of the staff of booking offices, in collusion with launch staff and ghat leaders, jointly build this syndicate, which is also in cahoots with the ghat police.
Some 21,000 first-class cabin tickets of Eid special launches on the Barisal–Dhaka route had been sold out five days before Eid and five days after the Eid day. All the tickets of BIWTA Eid special rocket steamer service had also been sold.
The Eid special services offered by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) caused unimaginable suffering to passengers this year. PS Mahshud, one of the five passenger carrier vessels employed on the Dhaka-Barisal-Morelgang for Eid special services by the BIWTC, went out of order after it was damaged by a launch. Five passengers were killed in the mishap. After the accident, the BIWTC faced problems in running its Eid special services. As a result, it could carry a total of only 5,566 Eid return passengers till July 11 with its five vessels, whereas private launches carried over 3 lakh passengers.

Passengers suffering mounts

Dhaka- Barisal Eid special service ends

The Eid special service with river vessels, which had begun on June 30, ended last night. The highest number of passengersaround 3,00,000left Barisal for Dhaka over the past four nights on 24 launches and a state-owned steamer after celebrating Eid Ul Fitr. Sources with the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) claimed that the highest number of return passengers on the occasion of Eidaround 100,000travelled from Barisal to Dhaka on Tuesday, the last day of the Eid special launch services. Many of them purchased deck tickets from the black market. Sources said a large number of passengers, however, failed to embark on the launches and steamers. All the vessels left Barisal port around 7pm, two hours before the scheduled time of departure, for the last three days. A mobile team, led by an executive magistrate, on seeing the rush of passengers, ordered the vessels to leave the ghats within 7pm. On his visit to the Barisal launch ghat yesterday morning, this reporter found a huge gathering of Dhaka-bound passengers in the ghat area and there was no space even in the terminal. Thousands of Eid returnees took up positions on the roofs of all the Dhaka-bound launches in the Barisal ghat. Some were seen jumping from one launch to another in a risky manner for securing some space. In the absence of a proper law to curb sale of launch cabin tickets on the black market, the police failed to do their duty. Khaza Ikbal, official of Parabat launch group, denied responsibility for the black marketing of tickets. Some influential people had taken tickets from us and later sold those on the black market, he claimed. Such black marketeers are very influential and form a ticket syndicate every Eid. A section of the staff of booking offices, in collusion with launch staff and ghat leaders, jointly build this syndicate, which is also in cahoots with the ghat police. Some 21,000 first-class cabin tickets of Eid special launches on the BarisalDhaka route had been sold out five days before Eid and five days after the Eid day. All the tickets of BIWTA Eid special rocket steamer service had also been sold. The Eid special services offered by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) caused unimaginable suffering to passengers this year. PS Mahshud, one of the five passenger carrier vessels employed on the Dhaka-Barisal-Morelgang for Eid special services by the BIWTC, went out of order after it was damaged by a launch. Five passengers were killed in the mishap. After the accident, the BIWTC faced problems in running its Eid special services. As a result, it could carry a total of only 5,566 Eid return passengers till July 11 with its five vessels, whereas private launches carried over 3 lakh passengers.