Ferry services suspended to curb rush of passengers
The authorities on Monday temporarily suspended all ferry services on two major channels on the river Padma due to the risks of COVID-19 as the rush of passengers increased defying government-imposed ban on public transports travelling to and fro the districts.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation shut the ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia channel in the morning and on Shimulia-Kathalbari channel in the afternoon.
‘We suspended all ferry services on two routes as we could not manage the pressure of passengers,’ said the corporation public relations officer Nazrul Islam Misha.
The service would resume in a limited scale only for emergency vehicles when the situation becomes normal, he added.
Long queues of vehicles were seen on Dhaka-Aricha national highway and Dhaka-Mawa expressway as police put up check posts to send back passenger-laden vehicles to source points.
A huge number people on their way to different south and south-east districts suffered at ferry terminals and on highways following the suspension order, which also led to long queues on highways.
People continued to leave the Dhaka city despite the ban on movement of public transports which was extended till May 30.
The decision of suspension of ferry services was taken as since last Friday a huge number of passenger-laden cars, microbuses and motorcycles and people on foot from Dhaka towards the south and south-western districts increased ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Earlier on March 25, the government imposed ban on all public transports on waterways for an indefinite period.
Only emergency and goods-laden vehicles remained out of the purview of the ban.
As Eid approached the number of cars, microbuses and motorcycles with passengers and people on foot started to increase at Paturia terminal in Manikganj and Shimulia terminal in Munshiganj recently.
Additional inspector general of highway police Mallick Faqrul Islam said that they were trying to check people’s movements, but mostly were either walking or taking private vehicles and CNG-run auto-rickshaws to reach their hometowns and villages.
He said that there were at least 82 checkpoints on different highways and districts police also have many checkpoints, but nothing could stop the rush of homebound people.
New Age correspondent in Manikganj reported that on Monday at about 11:00am, the corporation suspended the ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia channel following a request from the Manikganj deputy commissioner office to check the risk of COVID-19 proliferation.
Manikganj superintendent of police Rifat Rahman Shameem said, ‘Though check posts were set up at different points, people came to Paturia by different vehicles increasing the risk of spreading infection and that is why we requested BIWTC to stop the ferry services,’ he said.
New Age correspondent in Munshiganj reported that at around 12:30pm more than 500 vehicles were seen to gather at Shimulia terminal to reach Kathalbari terminal at Madaripur.
Around 3:00pm the authorities suspended the ferry service on the channel to contain the spread of the virus infection, said Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation deputy general manager (Shimulia ghat) Md Shafiqul Islam.
Sreenagar-Louhajang circle additional superintendent of police Asaduzzaman said that they set up check posts at different points on Dhaka-Mawa expressway to send back vehicles that had no emergency reason to be out on the road to their source points.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
