Barishal Bureau

A collision occurred between two passenger launches on the Dhaka-Barisal route on the Meghna River in dense fog. Various structures including the front of the two launches were damaged, but no casualties were reported.

The collision took place between the MV Kirtankhola-10 and MV Prince Awlad-10 launches between 2:15 and 2:30 am on Saturday, said BIWTA Barishal Deputy Director and River Port Officer Md. Abdur Razzak.

At 10 am on Sunday, he said that after the accident, the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch was able to leave for Dhaka with passengers, while the other launch named MV Prince Awlad-10 was anchored overnight in a safe place near the scene.

Later on Sunday morning, he said, 580 passengers of the MV Prince Awlad-10 launch were being brought to Barisal by the MV Shubraj-9 launch.

On the other hand, at 10 am, Joint Director of the Maritime Safety and Traffic Management Department of the Dhaka Sadarghat Office, Md. Ismail Hossain, said that the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch arrived safely in Dhaka with the passengers in the morning. The launch arrived in Dhaka a little later than usual due to the accident.

No information was available about how many passengers were on the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch that left Barisal. Monir Hossain, a passenger of the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch, said that the launch carrying them was heading towards Dhaka through the Meghna River. And late at night, there was such thick fog on the river that it was impossible to see even a hand in front.

He said, “In the meantime, the front of the MV Prince Awlad-10 launch bound for Barisal suddenly collided with the front of the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch carrying us with a loud noise.

“This caused the front of both launches to twist and panic among the passengers. However, the driver immediately floated the Kirtankhola-10 launch to the river bank. Later, after checking everything, he started his journey towards Dhaka again.”

He also said, “Not only was the front of the MV Kirtankhola-10 launch damaged in the collision, more than 20 motorcycles of the passengers parked in front of the launch were also damaged. However, we have not received any reports of any passenger casualties.”

Meanwhile, Mehedi Hasan, a passenger of the Prince Awlad-10 launch, said, “I woke up in the middle of the night due to a loud noise and the fear of the launch shaking. When I got out of the cabin, I saw thick fog, and I could not see anything in front of me.

“Later, when I went to the front of the launch, I saw that it had collided with another launch named Kirtankhola-10,” he added, “The driver of the Awlad-10 launch had to abandon it because the lower part of the fan was damaged. I heard that water was also entering the launch from a lower part, so the launch was not operated to avoid risk.”

“At around 9 am, the MV Shubraj-9 launch rescued the passengers including me from the scene and left for Barisal. Until then, all the passengers were safely on the launch. However, there was an unknown panic among everyone.”

The passengers of the launch say that they are shocked that such a collision occurred despite the luxury passenger launches having modern naval equipment including fog lights, radar, echo sounder, VHF.

They have demanded an investigation into whether the equipment was operational at the time of the incident, or whether they were being operated.