A C-truck with a capacity of 250 passengers has been launched on a trial basis on the Cox’s Bazar-Moheshkhali waterway. The C-truck named ‘Bhasa Sainik Abdul Jabbar’ was launched at 11:30 am today, Friday. The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) said that the C-truck will operate regularly from April 25. The maximum fare per passenger can be set at 40 taka.
The C-truck started its movement from the pontoon of Jetty Ghat No. 6 of the Bankkhali River in Cox’s Bazar town. BIWTA Director (Port) AKM Arif Uddin, Joint Director Sabur Khan, Deputy Director (Chittagong Office) Md. Kamruzzaman, Assistant Director Md. Khairuzzaman and others were present at the time.
Regarding the launch of the C-truck, BIWTA Director AKM Arif Uddin told Prothom Alo, “We have been successful in launching the C-truck during high tide. However, various parts of the 10-kilometer sea channel are filled with silt and submerged reefs have emerged. It will be tested whether the C-truck can operate during low tide. If there is a problem, initiatives will be taken to excavate the filled part of the channel.”
AKM Arif Uddin also said that permanent sea-truck traffic will start on this waterway on April 25. The shipping advisor will officially inaugurate the sea-truck. Initially, one sea-truck will operate. Later, the number of sea-trucks will be increased. The fare of the sea-truck will not exceed 40 taka.
It took the C-Truck 35 minutes to cross a total of 10 kilometers of waterway, including three kilometers of the Bankkhali River and seven kilometers of the Bay of Bengal channel, from Jetty No. 6 on the Bankkhali River.
More than a hundred high-speed boats, speedboats, a few wooden boats and iron ‘gumboats’ are plying the waterway with passengers. It takes 8-9 minutes for a speedboat to cross the 10-kilometer waterway. And it takes 40 minutes for wooden trawlers and gumboats. Speedboats and gumboats are closed on this waterway after 6 pm. The fare for a speedboat with a capacity of 10 people is 90 taka per person, and for a gumboat with a capacity of 40 people is 30 taka.
Abdus Shukkur, a resident of Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazar, a fish trader and exporter, was on the first journey of the experimental C-Truck. He said that a long-standing demand of five lakh people of Maheshkhali has been fulfilled by the launch of the C-Truck. Now, passengers of Maheshkhali will have the opportunity to cross to Cox’s Bazar city in the rough sea and adverse weather conditions. Through this, they will get a fair price for sweet paan, salt and shrimp produced in Maheshkhali. Tourists will also have the opportunity to travel to Maheshkhali Island safely.
Another C-Truck passenger and National Citizens Party (NCP) Joint Member Secretary SM Suja Uddin said, ‘The long-standing demand of the people of Maheshkhali has been fulfilled today. This C-Truck service is the result of the student-public movement. Through this, if the speedboat syndicate is broken up, ordinary passengers will be free from harassment and suffering.’
When the C-truck left for Maheshkhali at 11:30 am, a section of the student crowd climbed onto the roof of the C-truck and chanted slogans like ‘Bhengeche Re Bhengeche/Syndicate Bhengeche. Who are you, who are I?/People are people’. When the C-truck docked at the BIWTA pontoon at Gorakhat in Maheshkhali, local residents gathered to watch.
Maheshkhali resident Ruhul Amin said, the Cox’s Bazar-Moheshkhali waterway has been under the control of some syndicates for decades. During the previous government, party members controlled speedboats and boats and extorted crores of taka from passengers. The per-capita speedboat fare was charged at 120 taka instead of 70 taka. He added, “The speedboat fare is now being charged at 90 taka. We demand that the C-truck fare be fixed at 30 taka.”
Source: Prothom Alo
