Long wait for ferries at Shimulia port

Crowds have descended on Shimulia port in Munshiganj for the fourth day of journeys home for Eid.

Munshiganj Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 June 2017, 05:24 AM
Updated : 24 June 2017, 05:24 AM

The river port provides waterway access to 21 districts in the south of the country.

Over 600 vessels, most of them small, were waiting to make the Padma crossing at the port around 9am on Saturday morning.

Passengers to various districts have faced long waits since dawn. Many have boarded launches or speedboats due to delays on the ferry.

Many of the launches and speedboats were seen to take on passengers much in excess to its capacity  to meet the demand.

“The number of passengers and vessels has increased steadily since the morning,” said Shimulia port BIWTC Manager Abdul Alim.

A total of 18 ferries are making the trip from Shimulia to Kanthalbari port for the Eid trips, the official said.

“The length of the route has decreased after the drilling and shifting of the port. This means there are more trips. A temporary halt  on cargo shipping has been enforced , but more than  six hundred vessels are still waiting at the port.”

According to Munshiganj Additional Superintendent of police Lima Akhter, over 600 police, Ansar and RAB personnel have been deployed to the area.

At least 20 passengers were injured on Saturday morning after a Gungun Transport bus travelling from Dhaka to Mawa fell into a ditch in Srinagar Upazila’s Bejgaon.

The victims are currently undergoing treatment at a local medical complex, highway police said.

Though there had been heavy traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway’s Gojaria area for the past three days, the flow of traffic was relatively smooth on Saturday, said Bhaberchar Highway Police Outpost Hashem Uddin.

“The traffic has dropped a bit since Friday night,” he said.

One-hundred-and-twenty police personnel have been deployed in the Gojaria area of the highway to help with Eid travel, he added.