The Daily Star
Launch owners started suspending operations of vessels across the country from this afternoon — protesting the latest fuel price hike.
As a result, around 800 Dhaka-bound passengers were stranded at Chandpur launch terminal, reports our local correspondent.
Later, the Bogdadia-7 launch, which was stationed there, left for Dhaka at 5pm with the stranded passengers.
“Even if there were no passengers, we would start for Dhaka because we did not receive any strike information from the owner,” said Abdul Qadir, supervisor of Bogdadia-7.
Chandpur Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Deputy Director, Kaisar Ul Islam said, hundreds of passengers were stranded here as the owners stopped service without any prior announcement.
“Later, we boarded the passengers on the Bogdadia-7 launch and we also arranged Imam Hasan-6 launch to take some more passengers to Dhaka,” he said.
“I boarded MV Sonar Tori around 3:40pm to go to Dhaka with my family,” said a passenger Akmal Hossain.
“When the owners called the strike, all the passengers had to get off the launch,” he added.
