Bangladesh News

A large number of vessels operating along the inland waterways do not have fitness or registration papers and have a tendency to violate river traffic rules as apparently no government authorities are overseeing them.

The crew of most of these unauthorised vessels also don’t have enough experience and expertise required by the law to do the job.

The illegal practice of running vessels without proper documents bribing officials of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and the Department of Shipping (DOS) is nothing new. But it has again been in the spotlight following capsize of MV Shourav-1 on the Buriganga on February 28.

The probe committee formed to investigate the last month’s launch disaster has gathered that the officials concerned had issued the fitness certificate for the passenger carrier without carrying out a survey.

Though the vessel had capacity to carry only 67 people, it had seats for 150.

The sand-laden cargo that rammed MV Shourav-1 causing it to sink on impact had managed to obtain its certificate despite being 2.3 metres longer than permitted.

The committee also concludes that masters of both the crafts were unskilled.

Officials from BIWTA and DOS say they have nothing to do if any vessels violate river traffic rules.

They say BIWTA is tasked with maintaining timetables for launches and checking documents when a launch docks. Besides, it also looks after navigability of rivers and safe passage for vessels.

On the other hand, DOS oversees construction of vessels, fitness, registration documents and training for crew, they add.

“Since most of the cargo vessels don’t touch BIWTA terminals, it’s not possible to take any action against those,” BIWTA Chairman Abdul Mannan Howlader told The Daily Star.

With the latest loss of lives, around 4,200 people were killed in waterway disasters in the last decade alone.

Such disasters occur frequently as the government despite all talks and strong commitments on several occasions has miserably failed to develop any mechanism to protect lives of passengers travelling by water.

Several probes done after such disasters reveal that unfit carriers and cargo vessels, unskilled masters or crew members, and loading passengers many times higher than capacity were solely responsible.

Chairman of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) Prof Khabirul Haque Chowdhury gives a grim picture of the sector. “Even many water vessels having fitness and registration certificates don’t deserve those for not being constructed maintaining proper design and plan.”

He said the entire sector that was earlier nakedly politicised has still been controlled by a syndicate. Those who have expertise did not get appropriate position due to politicisation, he observed.

Prof Chowdhury went on to say that though one has to submit design and plan to DOS to get those approved, in many cases vessels are constructed violating the rule.

He said eight to 10 organisations are authorised to oversee construction from the beginning. But often without survey, supervision or monitoring they give permission by signing papers and a vessel officially sets sail.

“Many launch owners submitted plans and designs to us after constructing a launch and in many cases flaws are found during survey,” said a DOS top official asking not to be named.

Although DOS returns the papers to the launch owners, he said often the papers get approved in exchange for handsome bribes.

Prof Chowdhury said: “You’ll find a river vessel fit on every paper, but if you conduct a post-mortem on a particular vessel having all necessary documents, you’ll find the anomalies.”

He added that sometimes he finds it astonishing to see the launches landing safely. He stressed the need for bringing the whole activities under a single umbrella.

Captain AKM Shafiqullah, director general of DOS, told The Daily Star such allegations cannot be dismissed offhand.

The DOS boss said they have marked the capacity in the body of every launch so that passengers can sit comfortably. But the passengers also get into launches already overcrowded.

He said it is really tough on the part of the government alone to check this. He urged the media to help in creating awareness among passengers.

Acting president of Bangladesh Inland Waterways Passenger Carrier Association (BIWPCA) Badiuzzaman Badal claimed such practice exists no longer. He said it was in practice around six to seven years ago when the authority of providing registration and other documents was vested with BIWTA.

Badal also said after DOS was empowered with giving registration and fitness certificates, naval architects, marine engineers and merchant mariners supervise construction of every ship.

Siddiqur Rahman Patwari, general secretary of BIWPCA, said passenger launches operating from Sadarghat have legal documents. “Mainly many cargo vessels don’t have necessary documents.”

But as BIWTA launched a clampdown on unfit and unregistered passenger vessels following the recent disaster, many launches which used to operate from Sadarghat have disappeared.

Those unauthorised water vessels particularly the passenger launches ply mainly by bribing BIWTA.

“In fact, no agency or authority is there to watch over whether river vessels are being sailed abiding by traffic rules,” said the BIWTA chairman.

He said recruitment and deployment of marine police force in the river with necessary logistics is necessary for strict enforcement of river traffic rules.

The DOS director general said they have nothing to do when a vessel is plying the inland waterways.

Launch owners said plying of cargo vessels is banned at night, but many defy the ban causing numerous small accidents as no-one is monitoring it.

The Ministry of Shipping had earlier submitted a proposal to the home ministry a couple of months ago demanding recruitment and deployment of marine police, a source in the ministry said.

But he could not say whether any move has been made by the home ministry to launch marine police.

A top official at the Police Headquarters said a proposal has been submitted to the home ministry for recruiting 366 personnel for marine police unit in 2008-09 fiscal year.