Rampant operation of unregistered speedboats with overloaded passengers and unskilled drivers continue on major water channels amid lacklustre monitoring, said officials and experts.

Year after year, these speedboats continue to run illegally putting lives at risks through reckless driving while no initiative has ever been taken to bring these under registration, experts added.

In the latest incident, at least 26 people were killed and five were injured while a passenger-carrying speedboat hit an anchored sand-laden bulkhead in the River Padma on Monday.

According to the Department of Shipping, the boat did not have any registration and was carrying 32 passengers against the seat capacity of 12.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority chairman commodore Golam Sadeq told New Age that the speedboat was running violating the ongoing ban on public transports on roads, waterways and railways.

None of the passengers were wearing lifejackets which increased the death toll while the driver was driving recklessly, he added. 

In Bangladesh, speedboats usually ply the major water channels, including Mawa, Shimulia, Kathalbari, Kazirhat and Aricha areas and in riverine districts like Patuakhali, Bhola and Barishal.

A study of Accident Research Institute under Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology based on newspaper reports shows that between 2018 and 2021 till Monday, in 10 speedboat accidents 36 were killed, 52 were injured and five remained missing.

The Department of Shipping issued registration for speedboats to allow these to carry a maximum of 12 passengers on calm water and till date it issued registration to around 340 speedboats, said DoS chief inspector Md Shafiqur Rahman on Monday.

Besides these, around 200 to 250 illegal speedboats were running on water channels across the country, said a senior department official seeking anonymity.

Earlier the state minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury at a meeting in September 2020 asked the DoS to observe ‘registration week’ with an aim to register all speedboats operating in the country.

He said that no speedboats would be allowed to run without registration as the government has a strong position against these.

But the movement of speedboats is rampant even during the ongoing restrictions since April 5 on public movement and other activities.

According to DoS, till August 2020, the number of speedboats with registration stood at 302 which increased to around 340 in the last few months.

Accident Research Institute lecturer Md Imran Uddin said that on speedboats the rules of taking 12 passengers were not followed which increased the risk of fatalities.

‘The way these speedboats are operated they are always at the risks of collisions. But we talk about these only when an accident occurs,’ he said, adding, ‘After an accident everything becomes normal.’

Besides, these boats run without valid documents with no strict monitoring over the service they provide, he said and added that strict monitoring could prevent accidents like these.

A senior DoS official alleged that BIWTA had the responsibility of checking these irregularities.  

BIWTA chairman commodore Golam Sadeq told New Age on Monday that most speedboats were running evading the eyes of the river police.

On Monday, the bulkhead was anchored during the accident while the speedboat driver hit it due to reckless driving, he said.

‘Only 28 speedboats running on the Shimulia-Banglabazar ferry route have registrations while most of the boats and drivers have no registrations and licences,’ he said and added that the registered boats ran in Patuakhali and Aricha only.

DoS statistics show that between 2005 and 2017, a total of 264 inland waterway accidents took place, with 1,430 people killed, 135 more injured and 265 missing.

The ARI study also shows that between 2018 and 2021, in 326 waterways accidents, 462 were killed, 315 were injured and 677 remained missing.