Bangladesh halts daytime ferries as Eid travellers rush home defying virus lockdown

A rush of travellers defying a coronavirus lockdown ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr has prompted the authorities to suspend daytime ferry services.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation or BIWTC announced the decision on Friday night after the ferries swarmed with passengers throughout the day.

The BIWTC took the decision because it believes such a rush of travellers will raise the number of infections when the country is experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak, said Nazrul Islam Misha, a spokesman for the corporation. 

The new decision will be effective from Saturday on Paturia-Daulatdia and Kanthalbari-Banglabazar routes.

The ferries will operate in the night only for vehicles carrying goods.

Vehicles carrying dead bodies and for “very important” reasons will be transported under special arrangements, Misha said.  

Earlier, heavy crowds of people returning home for Eid descended on Munshiganj’s Shimulia port despite pandemic health restrictions.

The number of ferry passengers has increased because launches and speedboats are not allowed to operate, said Md Shafiqul Islam, an assistant general manager of BIWTC.

Unable to cope with the onrush of passengers, some ferries departed without a single vehicle on board. As a result, over 1,000 freight and private vehicles were congesting the area around the port.

Thousands of people travelling to southern Bangladesh break pandemic rules to cross the Padma River, at the port at Munshiganj’s Shimulia on May 7, 2021, amid the ongoing lockdown.

Though long-haul buses are not operating during the lockdown, buses can still operate within their own districts. People are piling into smaller transports, like freight trucks or pick-ups, to make their way from Dhaka to Shimulia to cross the Padma to head home to the southern districts.

Massive crowds of people were gathered on the ferry pier on Friday morning, defying the pandemic to make their way home for the holiday.

Thousands of people were taking the ferries on foot, while freight trucks and other vehicles were stuck on the other side of the river.

All 87 launches on this river route have ceased operating due to the lockdown, BIWTC official Shafiqul said. About 450 speedboats and several hundred trawlers have also halted operations since the speedboat crash in Madaripur’s Shibchar.

These put all the pressure on the ferries.

In addition, three of the 16 ferries on the Shimulia-Banglabazar route are inoperable so it has been difficult to cope with the crowds with only 13 ferries running, Shafiqul said.