ZCZC
BSS-20
PM-VESSEL-INAUGURATION-2-LAST-DHAKA
About the passengers’ safety in waterway communication, the Prime Minister urged the operators, businessmen and passengers of the vessels to remain careful and vigilant over their safety and lives.
“Passengers’ safety has to be considered by those who run or operate the vessels. Besides, the passengers themselves will have to be careful about their own safety,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said sometimes vessels fall in accidents and people lose lives due to carrying passengers beyond the capacity. “So, all will have to be careful and vigilant to this end,” she added.
She emphasized on bringing all the vessels under the registration system, as it creates problems to identify the vessels in the time of compensation process due to lack of registration.
“If we can run vessels giving the operators appropriate training, the occurrence of accident will go down,” she opined.
The primer urged all not to allow excess passengers on board as it is indispensable for their safety. “Think once about the pain of those who remain alive losing their dear ones. So, you’ve to keep patience,” she added.
“I would like to request all – both passengers and operators—to remain careful,” she continued.
Briefly highlighting the development carried out by her government in this sector, the Prime Minister said the government wants to revive the waterways communication as a strong means of transportation.
She said the country has over 24,000km of waterways but nearly 6,000km would have been used and later that reduced to half in the dry season.
But, the present government has raised it to over 4,500km and also adopted a scheme to extend the waterways to 10,000km by 2024-25, she added.
Sheikh Hasina criticized the governments that had ruled the country after the association of Father the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as they put concentration on the business of bus and truck ruining the waterways communication.
She said Bangladesh is a delta and that is why the government has adopted “Delta Plan-2100” to develop it overall.
BSS/MAK/GA/1630 hrs