Could digitisation help? Sure - you could check the timetable online. But where cash is involved....
Joy Bangla!
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, Isha Khan <bdmailer@...> wrote:
>
> Waterbus service sinks after start *Lack of right planning, mismanagement
> blamed*
> *These waterbuses operate between Sadarghat and Gabtoli incurring a loss of
> Tk 20,000 a day. Poor planning, mismanagement and improper integration with
> other facilities has left the service on the brink of collapse. The photo
> was taken from Sadarghat recently*
>
> Sixteen months after its launching, the waterbus service in the rivers
> Buriganga and Turag is on the verge of collapse due to mismanagement and
> lack of proper planning.
>
> Moreover, introduction of wrong types of vessels for the existing landing
> facilities along their route also caused a decline in the number of
> passengers. The vessels can only have three stoppages instead of six as the
> existing pontoons or landing facilities are too high for those.
>
> Only two vessels now operate twice a day on the route -- Sadarghat to
> Gabtoli -- causing a loss of more than Tk 20,000 a day to Bangladesh Inland
> Water Transport Corporation which operates the service. The vessels were
> built at a cost of Tk 1.11 crore with their engines imported from the UK,
> BIWTC sources said.
>
> On the Sadarghat-Gabtoli road, 105 buses operate daily, carrying thousands
> of passengers. The journey by bus takes up to three hours at peak time.
> Water bus covers its route -- about 10 kilometres -- in one hour and 30
> minutes, and in a much more comfortable manner.
>
> Moreover, the waterbus service has failed to attract passengers on a route
> dotted with suburban localities inhabited by Lakhs. People of nearby Basila
> and Shyamlashi areas have been demanding stoppages at the landing
> facilities there. They said it is not understandable how the service was
> planned ignoring important localities near the route.
>
> "Lots of people from our village travel to Gabtoli every morning . But they
> have to take a much longer route to reach there, which takes up to two
> hours and costs more," said Deen Islam, a shopkeeper in Shyamlashi. "It
> would be a 15-minute journey by waterbus. We cannot understand why these
> vessels do not stop here," he added.
>
> Contacted, a BIWTC official said, "Waterbus service did not click because
> there was no planning to attract passengers. Bangladesh Inland Water
> Transport Authority had pledged to build proper landing facilities but
> nothing has been done so far."
>
> Seeking anonymity, another BIWTC official said, "Initially the service was
> so popular that at times we had to take more passengers than the vessels'
> capacity. But we failed to capitalise on it as the vessels started to break
> down."
>
> In 2004, BIWTA built eight pontoons for starting the waterbus service. But
> these are not at all suitable for the two vessels used in the service.
> Building such vessels was a wrong decision, he added."We requested the
> authorities concerned to build some wooden landings but no step has yet
> been taken in this regard," said the official involved in the service since
> its launching.
>
> http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=214481
>
------------------------------------
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