Cargo vessels back on river routes as storm weakens

Cargo vessel movement on river routes has resumed with the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) lifting its embargo, as the Met office lowered the danger signal with storm ‘Komen’ weakening.

Vessels were back on all river routes in the country on Friday morning, a day after the authorities had ordered the suspension of operations because of bad weather.
 
BIWTA Traffic Inspector at Dhaka’s Sadarghat Syed Mahbubur Rahman Mahfuz told bdnews24.com the prohibition had been lifted around 8am.
 
Md Mostafizur Rahman, BIWTA transport officer at Chandpur port, said launches on 18 routes had resumed operation soon afterwards.
 
But the number of passenger at terminal was low because of the rain caused by the weakened storm, reported bdnews24.com’s Chandpur Correspondent.

Chandpur’s Harina ferry terminal Manager Md Imran Hossain also said the situation was returning to normal.

Vessels stuck there since Thursday afternoon had left for their destinations, he said.

Ferry movements also resumed at Manikganj’s Paturia and Rajbarhi’s Doulatdia after a day’s suspension, said BIWTA Aricha terminal officials.

With Komen approaching, the BIWTA had halted transport on all river routes until further notice on Thursday morning following danger signal No.7 issued for several seaports and coastal districts by the Met office on Wednesday night.

Operations at ferry terminals in the coastal districts were also halted.

The storm crossed the Chittagong coast without causing any serious damage and weakened into a land depression early on Friday.

Since then, the Met office lowered the danger signal No. 7 to cautionary signal No. 3 for Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar maritime ports.

The danger signal No. 5 for the Mongla and Payra ports were also brought down to cautionary signal No. 3.