Dredging work has been ongoing for three months near Aricha Ghat with six dredgers to remove the silt and maintain the ferry service on the Aricha-Kazirhat route. However, despite these efforts, the navigability crisis showed no improvement. In fact, the situation worsened over time, leading to the eventual 38-hour suspension of ferry operations on this route from Friday to Sunday.
According to sources from the BIWTC's Aricha regional office, the BIWTA’s dredging unit was repeatedly urged to expedite dredging efforts from the onset of the navigability crisis to keep the ferry service operational. Despite this, due to alleged inadequate attention from the unit led to the recent suspension of ferry services. Although six dredgers have been in operation near Aricha Ghat for the past three months, the navigability issue on this route continued to deteriorate. Normally, a water depth of 9 to 10 feet is required for smooth ferry movement, but the current depth is only about 8 to 8.5 feet. Additionally, the width of the channel is significantly narrower than required. Across a 200-meter stretch of this narrow channel, there are numerous submerged sandbars, causing ferries to hit these sandbars and operate at half capacity. Over the past two weeks, ferries have frequently struck these submerged areas, resulting in damage to their propellers and raising concerns of potential accidents. In light of this, ferry authorities decided to suspend the ferry service on the route from last Friday.
BIWTC Aricha Ghat Manager Abu Abdullah said that, although a test run with 13 trucks on the ferry Dhansiri was conducted around 11:15am on Sunday, the vessel hit submerged sandbars at the problematic section of the route. Despite this, there are efforts to keep the ferry service running, though the rapid decrease in water levels in the Jamuna River still poses a risk, as ferries could get stranded in the channel at any moment.
BIWTA’s Executive Engineer of the Dredging Division, Hasan Ahmed, said that the naval route under Aricha division extends as far as Baghabari. Water levels have been decreasing at an unprecedented rate of 1 to 1.5 feet per day. Compared to previous years, the decrease in water level was severe. They are dredging across a 2.5 kilometres area this year.
