Inland Water Transport (IWT) Ship In Watery Grave!

GUWAHATI: The surging water of the Brahmaputra has gobbled up SDB Hansaraj – a State Inland Water Transport (IWT) department’s ship used for ferrying passengers to and from Pandu and Amingaon in Guwahati – right in front of the department. Who the finger of responsibility should be pointed at?

It is not that the ship went under water of the river all of a sudden because of a flash flood or otherwise. The surging water of the mighty river has gobbled up the ship slowly. It took days together for the water level to flow over the ship. With the water level of the river receding a little since Sunday, the sunken ship is seen slightly now.

According to sources in the department, now the ship cannot be taken out from the riverbed. The single-engine ship being a wooden one, any effort now to take it out from the watery grave will only crumble it. If the ship is allowed to stay in the riverbed till the next dry season, it will go well under the silt and get totally damaged, sources said. What is to be taken note of is that this ship was renovated spending around Rs 6 lakh in 2018.

It is certain that the woodwork of the ship will get damaged by next year. However, what remains to be known is: whether the engine will do well after it is taken out from the riverbed during the next dry season.

Now who will own the responsibility for such a fate of the ship? Will the department fix the responsibility and bring to book those responsible for this plight of the ship?

The Pandu-Amingaon ferry service has been stopped since the ferry accident in the Brahmaputra in Guwahati in September 2018. This ship had been lying idle in the ferry towards the Amingaon side.

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