550 rescued after 3 days
Published: September 17, 2004
The state-run BIWTC’s vessel PS Ostrich was re-floated on Friday at Bhasanchar of Mehendiganj in the Meghna river with 550 passengers after three days, officials said.
The 100-year-old large vessel, which was plying on the Dhaka-Khulna route via Barisal, ran around at 4 AM apparently due to visibility problems caused by the countrywide inclement weather.
The passengers, however, were rescued within hours by sea trucks.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) officials earlier said at least 40 labourers were engaged in cutting canals along the two sides of the huge steamer ship to float it on water during the ebb tide.
They earlier abandoned an idea of using two tug boats to push the Ostrich back to waters fearing that it would cause damage to the century-old vessel, which was refurbished several years ago.
BIWTC official Mosharraf Hossain Hawladar told BSS in Dhaka that the vessel would return to Dhaka with passengers today from here after offloading its nearly 13 tonnes of cargo and undergoing minor repairs.
“Our experts will thoroughly scan the vessel and recommend if it needs any major repairs,” he said.
The ship has an official carrying capacity of 850 passengers.
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