Several thousand passengers on Paturia-Daulatdia and Shimulia-Kathalbari ferry routes were stuck for several hours on both sides of the Padma river due to dense fog yesterday.
People, especially women and children, have been suffering badly as ferry services have been disrupted for three consecutive days resulting in huge traffic jam on both routes, report our correspondents.
Apart from the river routes, passengers travelling by air also had to suffer as at least 12 flights were delayed due to dense fog at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, ferry ghat and aviation officials told The Daily Star.
Ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia route remained suspended for eight hours from early hours yesterday causing severe traffic congestion on both sides of the river, especially at Paturia point, reports our Manikganj correspondent.
Shafiqul Islam, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Daulatdia, said ferry operation on the route remained suspended since 2:00am to avoid any accident.
Four ferries were forced to anchor in the middle of the river due to dense fog, he added.
Besides, seven ferries remained stranded at Paturia point and five at Daulatdia point since 2:00am due to poor visibility, causing untold sufferings to several thousand passengers in the chill weather, the officials said.
The services resumed around 10:00am yesterday when fog was cleared, Shafiqul Islam said.
“Density of the fog was so thick around the river basin that we had to wait till 11:00am to resume ferry operation on Paturia-Daulatdia route,” said Nasir Mohammad Chowdhury, assistant general manager of BIWTC at Aricha.
Around 700 vehicles were seen lined up stretching around five to six kilometres at Paturia ghat, while around 600 vehicles were lined up on Daulatdia side, added our correspondent.
The ferry services resumed around 10:30am when the fog was cleared, Nasir added.
Ferry services were suspended on Shimulia-Kathalbari route for eight hours since 2:00pm yesterday, writes our Munshiganj correspondent.
Seven ferries with more than a thousand passengers on board remained stuck in the Padma for over eight hours due to dense fog.
Besides, around 400 buses also remained stranded at Shimulia point due to suspension of ferry services, said the assistant general manager of BIWTC, Shimulia Ferry Ghat.
Mohammad Shuvo, a Dhaka-bound passenger, said it took 12 hours for their bus to reach Daulatdia ghat from Jessore instead of three hours at best.
“I started my journey by a Sohag Paribahan bus at 6:50am yesterday and reached Daulatdia Ghat at 6:30pm,” he added.
Kamal Hossain, a staff of Eagle Bus Service, Jessore branch, said time scheduled of their business has collapsed due to the dense fog.
AKM Rezaul Karim, spokesperson, Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said around 12 outbound flights scheduled to fly from HSIA between 7:30am and 10:40am yesterday were delayed due to the fog.
