As three out of four vessels of the prestigious, traditional and longest river route Rocket steamer service of Bangladesh Water Transport Corporation have gone out of order, seriously threatening closure of that service at any time ahead of Eid.On other hand sea-truck service on Barisal-Luxmipur route was disrupted after the only vessel of the route went out of order since Monday.Paddle steamer PS Ostrich went out of order after a part of the wheel broke and fell into the Kacha River near Tealikhali under Bhandaria upazila of Pirojpur on way to Morelganj Tuesday.Another paddle steamer PS Lepcha went out of order due to mechanical faults at Barsal River Port on the same day on way to Dhaka.Paddle Steamer PS Mahsud, another passenger carrying vessel of BIWTC on the route, went to dockyard about three months ago, the BIWTC sources told.So now three out of 4 BIWTC vessels on Dhaka-Barisal-Khulna (Morelganj) route remained out of service making it hard to maintain the regular schedule by only PS Tern, as the condition of that vessel also very critical.Gopal Chandra Majumdar, assistant manager BIWTC Barisal station, admitting the facts said PS Lepcha may leave Barisal for Dhaka on Wednesday night for further check up.PS Mahsud was released from the dockyard on Sunday and date of resumption of operation of that vessel on the route has yet not been fixed, he said.BIWTC station engineer Kamal Mitra said a technical team led by Engine-Mechanic Lokman Hossain was sent to repair the mechanical faults of PS Ostrich.If that is not successful then the stranded steamer would be tugged to BIWTC dockyard at Narayanganj and it will take some long time to replace the bearing, shaft and other mechanical faults, the BIWTC engineer said.On other hand BIWTC sources said bearing and engine faults of sea-truck ST Khizir-8 caused disruption of Barisal-Bhola-Luxmipur route since last Monday.However Mojibor Rahman, chairman BIWTC, said screw-type vessel MV Sela would be placed on the rocket service route immediately to maintain the schedule. Other vessels would also be repaired and checked for operating on Eid special trips.Passengers stranded on the BIWTC vessels suffered innumerous sufferings due to delay, break of journey, extra costing, shortage of water, food and sanitation facilities on the vessel and port, alleged Yusuf Abdullah, a passenger of PS Ostrich and Harunor Rashid, a passenger of PS Lepcha.Passengers said that while operating regular service and reaching destination timely and smoothly has become uncertain, then how is BIWTC going ensure operating special trips on Eid vacation with safety and punctuality. -Our Correspondent’
