BIWTA showed negligence to Padma Bridge project office advice not to set up jetty at Banglabazar

Repeated incidents of hitting the piers of Padma Bridge by ferries have been reported due to negligence of directions given by the bridge project office.

In the very beginning, sources said, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) Project office opposed setting up a jetty at Banglabazar in Madaripurand suggested it further upstream around Kobutarkhola.

It also directed the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) to guide ferries to cross the bridge between piers four and eight for two ways.

The office asked the ferries to use piers four, five and six while coming from Shimulia jetty and piers six, seven and eight while coming from Banglabazar jetty to avoid mainstream river water.

Experts say mainstream water of the river crosses below piers eight to 22, making ferries difficult to manage the wheel under the bridge as they also face turbulence due to the swelling of water in the rainy season.

After the August 09 accident, sources said, a joint meeting was also held at the cantonment on Jajira side on August 11 in the presence of 99 Composite Brigade's commander where similar directions were also given.

They said the attendees of the meeting, including BIWTC and BIWTA chairmen, also crossed the river through the suggested route without any trouble.

But the directions were not followed by ferries, thus inviting another occurrence of hitting the piers a day after the meeting.

"The ferries that cross the river from Banglabazar don't follow the route as directed. Ferries try to cross under the bridge coming from the channel in a curved way, thus pushing them into mainstream water just below the bridge," said a project insider.

An official also said the ferry carrying BIWTC and BITWA heads safely crossed the piers between six and seven after heading 500 metres to 1.0 kilometre straight from the channel coming from Banglabazar.

Despite this directive, employees and staff of ferries ignored it, thus inviting another occurrence of hitting pier number 10 just after the meeting.

The PMB office informed the BIWTC and BIWTA of the river's velocity recorded at 3.25 metres to 3.5 metres per second which is much higher than the ferry's capacity of 1.5 metres per second.

It installed most of the piers of the bridge in the mighty Padma in 2019, but there has been no such incident of hitting piers in the past two seasons.

Last year's river erosion forced the BIWTA to shift the Banglabazar jetty slightly downstream despite opposition from the PMB.

It finally opened in November 2020.

It is also reported that Shimulia jetty at Mawa site was also set up ignoring suggestions.

However, the BIWTA said the problem occurred due to emersion of new chars (shoals) between the channel. Due to repeated accidents, the authorities are now considering shifting the Banglabazar jetty to Majhirkandi jetty in Shariatpur.

Since Banglabazar jetty in Madaripur was set up, the PMB faced at least five incidents of hitting piers since July 04.

The last accident occurred while a ro-ro ferry was crossing the bridge between piers 10 and 11.

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