The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: Poor visibility caused by dense fogs disrupted ferry movements for 7.45 hours on Paturia-Daulatdia and Aricha-Kazirhat routes early today, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) Paturia Ghat officials said. “Dense fog blanketed the river routes, forcing us to suspend the ferry movements at around 1.45 am today (Thursday). The services were resumed seven and half hours later,” BIWTC’s deputy general manager Shah Mohammad Khaled Newaz said.

He said at midnight after the fog density was increased and the routes appeared “almost invisible” when all of 17 ferries, which were to operate during the subsequent hours, were asked to remain stationed at terminals or on the midstream. The official said two of the ferries Shaheed Barkat and Shah Enayetpuri, was stranded in the midstream of the Padma River in Paturia-Daulatdia route with vehicles and passengers during the period, while Begum Sufia Kamal and Camelia on the Jamuna in Aricha-Kazirhat route.

Officials said the fog simultaneously forced suspension of movement of other vessels like engine-run country boats and launches both the river routes. They said the visibility largely returned at about 9.00 am in Paturia-Daulatdia route and 9.25 am at Aricha-Kazirhat route. Newaz said the suspension of the ferry movements elongated queues of vehicles including passenger buses on all ends of the routes. DGM Newaz said BIWTC, deployed three big sized Ro-Ro ones to clear the huge backlog of transports in a quicker time for the Paturia-Daulatdia route alongside its regular 12 ferries.