Dhaka's circular waterways lost in policy labyrinth!

Waterbuses started ferrying passengers on Gabtoli-Sadarghat route in 2010 when the government launched the service.

Its aim was not only to offer the commuters the option of avoiding traffic congestion on the roads but also develop circular waterways, by reviving the navigability of the rivers surrounding the capital.

The people who have to commute across the city from one end to the other almost every day saw hope in this initiative. But it turned into a fiasco, though the ferry service through Hatirjheel lake has been immensely popular.

Today, only two of the 11 waterbuses for the circular waterways are in operation, a Prothom Alo investigation finds.

The landing stations are dirty. Witnesses say the waterbuses are not regularly cleaned and reek with a foul stench.

On Monday afternoon, a good number of passengers including women and elderly people were seen waiting for the waterbus at the Gabtoli terminal. Some of them said the waterbuses run only twice from Gabtoli -- one starting at 9:00am and the other at 3:05pm -- and also twice from Badamtoli -- one starting at 9am and the other at 5pm.

“Passengers love to go by waterbus but it plies only twice a day,” said Yusuf Ali, an onion trader living in Badamtoli.

He travels by the waterbus whenever he goes to Gabtoli, he told this correspondent. “I know if I go by the waterbus, I will reach in one and half hours, but there is no guarantee when I will reach if I go by bus along the road,” he said.

Waiting passengers said there should be more waterbuses -- at least one every hour.

One such passenger was Jibon Mondol, an electrician, who, accompanied by his wife and two children, was waiting for waterbus. “I normally use this waterbus. It is easier for me to go by waterbus than by bus,” he said.

He added that most people in his area - Kamrangirchar -- prefer waterbus to buses to go to Gabtoli. “In Kholamora, there is always a long queue for waterbuses.”

 ‘Sometimes, my work in Gabtoli is finished by 12 noon but there is no waterbus at that time. I have to wait for three hours to go by waterbus,” he said.

This waterbus project was launched in August 2010 with two waterbuses name after two rivers Turag and Buriganga, operating every day on the 16 km route from Gabtoli to Badamtoli via Kholamura and Swarighat from 7:00am to 6:00pm every one and a half hours.

Project records show, each waterbus with 35 seats cost Tk 5.57 million. The fare was fixed at Tk 30 from Sadarghat to Gabtoli and Tk 10 from Swarighat to Kholamura and Kholamura to Gabtoli was fixed at Tk 10.

This is yet another example of wastage of public resources as projects and programmes undertaken with sufficient allocations from the annual budget are hardly implemented or fail to attain cherished results due to negligence of the authorities.

Despite its popularity, authorities are apparently reluctant to make the waterbus project a success. Some stakeholders alleged that vested quarters were active to make it a failure.

Mohammad Shakil, a businessman in Kamrangirchor area, believes there may be a nexus between the operators and other interest groups.

“If waterbus is available, people will never go by buses. And there are plenty of passengers on this route but the water buses are being run only twice a day. What can we conclude from this? he said.

When contacted, Bangladesh Inland Water Transportation Corporation (BIWTC) chairman Mohammed Mafizul Haque claimed all the 11 waterbuses are in operation.

“We are operating the buses on a regular basis. However, we do not get passengers. What can we do if we do not get adequate passengers?” he said.

When asked if BIWTC is doing anything to make the waterbus service popular, he said for a government organisation like BIWTC, it is hard to take promotional steps to make them popular.