Fog disrupts communication on road, air, waterways

Travellers suffered the worst as dense fog caused long tailbacks, some of them stretched 25-km, on national highways and delayed domestic flights as the cold spell sweeping across the country persisted for the third consecutive day on Friday.

Authorities also had to suspend operations of ferries between on Paturia -Daulatdia route for seven hours Thursday night because of poor visibility.

Travelling took way longer than the usual time forcing authorities to cancel or reschedule their bus trips between districts.

‘I have been stuck here for two and a half hours,’ said Shahed Anar Shetu Ahsan, a Magura-bound bus passenger, who along with hundreds others were waiting at Paturia. New Age correspondent in Manikganj reported about 500 vehicles were stranded at the Paturia Ghat after ferry operations across the Padma remained suspended for almost seven hours after 10:30pm.

Lines of vehicles on either side of the River Padma stretched nearly 3 km as they waited for their turn to cross the river.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation general manager Zillur Rahman said that dense fogs had forced four of their ferries to anchor halfway through at 10:30pm Thursday.

The ferry service resumed at 5:00am Friday after the fog reduced, he said.

He said that the ferries were navigating slowly as clouds of fogs would often appear on their ways affecting their visibilities.

New Age correspondent in Tangail reported that tailback stretched 25km on the east side of the Bangabandhu Bridge as motorists found it difficult to drive through dense fogs.

Bangabandhu Bridge east police station officer-in-charge Mirza Ayubur Rahman said that parts of the road was under maintenance and it worsened the situation all the more.

The highway police issued a special alert for motorists to go slow while driving through dense fogs and asked them to use fog light.

‘Highway police are patrolling to prevent drivers from speeding up,’ said highway police additional director general Tanvir Haider Chowdhury. 

Roads and Highways Department’s additional chief engineer Ashraful Alam said that advisories would help a little to reduce chances of danger for most vehicles in Bangladesh are not fitted with fog lights.

Five flights between Dhaka and Jashore and Syedpur were delayed for several hours because of dense fog Friday morning.

Novo Air senior manager AKM Mahfuzul Haque said that they had to delay their two morning flights to Jashore and Syedpur for up to four hours.

The Met Office forecast Friday that moderate to thick fog may reduce the visibility from midnight till morning.

The Met Office said that the cold spell would continue throughout Saturday but the temperatures might rise from Sunday.

The cold wave was sweeping across the regions of Rajshahi, Jashore and Chuadanga, said the Met Office.

It recorded the country’s lowest minimum temperature of 8.4° C in Chuadanga in 24 hours until 6:00 pm Friday.

The minimum temperatures in other parts of the country hovered around 15° C.

In the capital the minimum temperature was recorded at 13.4° C.

People avoided going out or stay in shelters unless it was urgent but still the onrush of patients with cold related diseases to hospitals continued.

The health emergency operations centre and control room said that over 6,000 people sought treatment at hospitals across the country for cold related diseases in 24 hours ending Friday morning.

Physicians have asked people to take extra precautions when temperatures remain below 15° C for people in the country are not used to cope with intense cold weather.

Still most of the people in Bangladesh live in temporary houses made of bamboo and other materials not strong enough to protect its inhabitants against severe weather conditions.

Even most of the rich Bangladesh homes do not have central heating system.

New Age correspondents in Lalmonirhat and Rangpur reported that people in the districts suffered the worst as the sun remained covered with dense fogs for the fourth consecutive day and chilling winds blew uninterrupted from the north.

Meteorologist Ruhul Quddus said that there might be another cold spell after the existing one was over on Sunday.

‘The first week of January is likely to experience the second spell of intense cold weather this winter,’ he said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net