Ferry services on Aricha-Kazirhat route resume on trial basis

MANIKGANJ, Feb 3: Ferry services on Aricha-Kazirhat route, which remained suspended for over a decade due to poor navigability, resumed on Wednesday on experimental basis with the operation of two ferries.
The ferry services resumed in the morning with ferry 'Matiur Rahman' which left the Aricha Ghat for Kazirhat in Pabna district.
A team of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) visited the route to check the ferry services on the route.
The construction work on the two ghats on Aricha-Kazirhat route has completed. The vessel operation on the route was also launched on experimentally and the ferry services will resume officially soon, said Commodore Golam Sadeque, chairman of the Bangladesh Inland and Water Service Corporation (BIWTC).
Communications with Dhaka and other northern-western parts of the country will be easier with the operation of ferry services over the route, he said adding that people will be able to easily transport their goods after the inauguration of the ferry services."At first, the route will have two ferries and few more ferries will be added to the fleet in phases," said Sadeque adding that the people of Pabna and Rajshahi district will be benefited with the ferry services.
The ferry services on Aricha-Kazirhat route remained suspended since 2001 due to poor navigability and shifted to Paturia from Aricha.
Later, the authorities concerned of BIWTA conducted dredging work with five dredger machines to reopen the Aricha-Kazirhat ferry route to facilitate the people of northern and western parts of the district.