Water taxi services on Dhaka’s Hatirjheel ‘from Victory Day’

Water taxis will ferry passengers on Dhaka’s Hatirjheel starting from Victory Day.

Four of these vessels were brought from Chittagong to the capital on Sunday midnight. Another two were expected to arrive in a few days.

The orange taxis parked outside Police Plaza Concord have been grabbing the attention of people passing the mall at Gulshan.

Some have been asking workers on site about what their plans were for the boats.

Engines will be attached to the bodies which will be lowered into the water on Tuesday, Maj Shakil Hossain, the project's manager, told bdnews24.com.  

“We have a programme planned for Dec 16, our Victory Day,” said Hatirjheel development project director Md Jamal Aktar Bhuiyan.

“We are hoping the honourable minister for public works and the mayor of Dhaka north will come to our event. We’ll launch the service on that day if they accept our invitation.”

Modhubag resident Aslam Uddin stopped to take pictures of the water taxis on his phone as he was taking his son home from school.

He believes the taxis will help, but also expressed concern about the polluted water of Hatirjheel. “The water smells terrible!” he said. “And you can smell it all the way from my house. It would be hard to go back and forth across that water every day.

This is why we need an initiative to clean up the lake first.” Banasri resident Shibul Jaman believes the taxis will prove popular because they will help avoid traffic.

“The advantage of these water taxis is that, as long as the schedules are maintained, they will arrive at their destination by a certain time,” he said.

>> Engines for the water taxis were bought from China. The total cost for each taxi came to Tk 8.5 million.

>> The taxis are being assembled at a workshop in Chittagong. Four have been completed so far. Project officials believe the other two will be complete by the end of the month.

>> A company named Messrs Wahid Miah has acquired a 20 year lease for the taxi service.

>> A water taxi can carry 45 passengers at a time. Each taxi will also have a small canteen, which will sell cake, biscuits and other light snacks.

>> The water taxi terminal will be located at Hatirjheel’s FDC area. Taxis setting out from the terminal will reach their destination within half an hour.

Two routes have been planned for the water taxis so far, Maj Shakil told bdnews24.com. The Badda link road route will cost passengers Tk 25 and the Rampura Bridge route will cost Tk 30.

“This is the current fare. It may go up or down. We will evaluate demand and our operating costs in three months and adjust our fare accordingly.” The speed of the water taxis will be regulated as high speed journeys may erode the shores of Hatirjheel lake.

Hatirjheel officials believe the water taxi service will bring about a significant change in Dhaka city traffic.

The service may ease travel to Karwan Bazar, Moghbazar, Dilu Road, Eskaton, Bangla Motor and Tejgaon for people from Badda, Gulshan, Rampura, Khilgaon and other eastern parts of the city.

If successful, the service could be expanded to Gulshan lake through Baridhara, suggests Hatirjheel project director Md Jamal Akhtar Bhuiyan.