Reason why ferry
Amanat Shah sank

41-yrs old ferry has no survey certificate

Mahfuz Emran: On October 26 last year, the ferry Amanat Shah left Daulatdia in Rajbari and sank at Paturia Ghat in Manikganj. The Ministry of Shipping formed a 7-member inquiry committee into the incident. The committee submitted its investigation report to the Ministry of Shipping on November 16 last year. There are many reasons for the ferry accident.
Reviewing the investigation report, it was found that the ferry tilted 11.43 degrees towards the wharf at the port side while unloading the ramp at the wharf. The first truck descended within 15 seconds of the ramp unloading. List angle is 12 degrees after the truck goes down. 20 seconds after the first truck named the second truck. The third truck was able to land within 5 seconds. Then the ferry’s list angle was 16.62 degrees.
It is known that the ferry is about 41 years old. The last docking repair of the ferry named Amanat Shah was done in 2012. No flowers have been docked since then. Besides, there is no survey certificate. As a result, it was impassable.
The ferry returned from the dock last July after a brief overhaul, but no hull or bottom work was done. No sand blast was done. There were also weaknesses in welding work, lack of gazing work in docking (verification of hull and bottom thickness). Properly docked, multiple small holes in the side of the ferry would be repaired. As a result, water could not enter quickly through these.
The dock did not verify whether Blackhead or Partition wall airtight. As a result, the water entering through the hole or crack in the bottom of the ferry gets tilted due to accumulation in the port side of the ferry through other holes in the partition wall. Docking authorities received the ship’s engine officer and master release order after the ferry’s docking repairs were completed.
In this case, other important work including sand blunting, air tight compartment / blackhead verification, engine overhauling is not seen outside the work order / requirements received by the dock yard. Moreover, there is a lack of equipment.
There was also negligence in the work of ballasting-debalasting of the ferry. As a result, although there was a list on one side of the ferry, no action was taken. The ferry deck does not have a manhole nut bolt, so the compartments were not air tight. As a result, ferry washing water and rainwater easily entered the ballast tanks regularly. As a result, the people working on the ferry had no idea about the amount.
Since the oil tank on the right side of the ferry and all the ballast tanks on the left side of the ferry, naturally more water on the left side is invisible to the people working on the ferry.
The investigation has shown that the ballast management of the ferries and the placement of the trucks are not proper, so the ferry master or the people concerned think that the matter is normal. As this practice was going on, the master of Amanat Shah Ferry did not take cognizance of the matter.
As the weighing instrument of Daulatdia Ghat was broken, the issue of weight was not taken into consideration and only after measuring the area, the car was loaded on the ferry. Later, when the drivers of the vehicles left the ferry, they did not follow the instructions of the ferry tandel and Lashkar and started obeying the vehicles from the ferry. A third car pulled out of the port side after two vehicles on the right and left in front of the ramp came out after the sheep at the ferry terminal due to poor vehicle management.
When the fourth car left, the ferry was tilted further and the ramps were not in place, so the trucks tilted to the port side. The cars on the right side tilted to the left due to excessive tilt. At this time the ferry tilted further and was half submerged at the port side.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) Aricha office DGM Shah Mohammad Khaled Newaz said surveillance has been stepped up after repairing the docking of each ferry after the accident. Besides, monitoring on ferries has been intensified.
Asked about this, Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury said that the BIWTC and BIWTA departments have been instructed to implement every recommendation of the investigation report.