Water bus service to be relaunched on Dhaka waterways : Rabiul
- Update Time : Sunday, 2 August, 2026, 03:01 pm
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Online Desk : The government is planning to relaunch water bus services on Dhaka’s circular waterways through private operators as part of a broader initiative to ease urban traffic congestion, improve river transport and promote river-based tourism, Road Transport, Bridges and Shipping Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam said. He made the announcement while speaking to journalists following a meeting with the Prime Minister at the Secretariat on Sunday. “We will complete the necessary planning within the next two months and then gradually introduce water bus services on the circular waterways through private operators,” he said.
The proposed service is expected to operate along Dhaka’s circular river route, connecting Ashulia, Sadarghat and Narayanganj. The minister said the Ashulia-Sadarghat-Narayanganj stretch remained relatively passenger-friendly, although several sections of the route continued to face operational and navigational challenges. He acknowledged that a previous attempt by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) to operate water buses had failed after incurring losses of about Tk 57 crore over the past decade.
According to the minister, the losses resulted primarily from low passenger demand, severe river pollution and high operating costs. He said that commuters generally preferred road transport because destinations that took one-and-a-half to two hours by road often required two-and-a-half to three hours by water, making river transport less attractive. The minister said several private entrepreneurs had already expressed interest in operating the service.
“Their objective is not only passenger transport but also to utilise the tourism and recreational potential of the rivers surrounding Dhaka,” he said. Explaining the difference between the proposed service and the existing water buses at Hatirjheel, Rabiul Alam said Hatirjheel benefited from short-distance travel, high passenger demand and fewer navigational obstacles, whereas operating on longer river routes required a different business model. He sAid that water buses would need to operate at intervals of 15 to 20 minutes to attract sufficient passengers. However, maintaining such a frequency would require deploying a larger fleet, substantially increasing operating costs.
“If operating costs exceed revenue, operators will again face financial losses,” he said. The minister identified river pollution as the biggest challenge to reviving the service. He said polluted rivers, foul odours and floating waste discouraged people from travelling by water and undermined the prospects of river-based tourism. To address the problem, the government has adopted an integrated plan to clean the rivers surrounding Dhaka, improve the environment along both riverbanks and make the waterways suitable for regular passenger vessel operations.
Relevant government agencies have been assigned responsibilities under the plan, while another inter-agency meeting will be held in two to three months to review progress. The minister also said several low bridges, including the Tongi railway bridge, currently prevented uninterrupted water bus operations. While some road bridges could be raised if necessary, he said raising railway bridges was not considered feasible. Instead, passengers might have to disembark before the bridge and board another water bus on the opposite side where required.
Responding to questions about alleged irregularities in the previous BIWTC project, Rabiul Alam said that the government was reviewing the reasons behind the Tk 57 crore loss. He maintained, however, that the principal causes were low passenger numbers, river pollution and the inability to operate a sufficient number of water buses.He said those shortcomings would be addressed before the new initiative was implemented. The minister added that no separate budget had yet been allocated for the project, saying the relevant agencies would initially carry out preparatory work within their existing responsibilities. Additional funding would be considered if necessary as the project progressed.
