Department of shipping (DoS) will go tough against river vessels plying different routes in the country without survey certificates during the Eid-ul-Fitr festival.

As part of the move, the officials concerned will visit different river ports from this week to see whether the river vessels (both passenger and cargo) are fit or not during the festival.

"We will visit river ports from Monday to examine survey certificates of passenger vessels and their condition with a view to ensuring safe journey for the home-bound passengers during Eid," chief engineer and ship surveyor of DoS Md Manjurul Kabir told the FE.

He said the DoS officials will visit Dhaka River Terminal Port at Sadarghat in the city, Paturia, Dauladia and Mawa ferry ghats from today (Monday) to see the vessels' condition.

"We will start our visit from tomorrow and it will continue until June 08."

Mr Kabir said if they find any vessels unfit, they will take legal action against them. "We will also examine the condition of cargo vessels during the festival."

A significant number of passengers travel by launches on Dhaka-Barishal, Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka-Patuakhali, Dhaka-Bagerhat, Dhaka-Barguna and Dhaka-Pirojpur routes during the biggest religious festival of the Muslims.

Around 70 to 80 launches carrying 15,000 to 20,000 passengers ply different river routes in southern districts of the country every day.

And the figure will be over 50,000 during the Eid vacation.

Cashing in on a large number of passengers ahead of Eid, a section of greedy launch owners try to operate unfit launches giving them a facelift.

During Eid holidays, many unregistered trawlers and launches usually make short-distance trips across the rivers to earn more profits, resulting in accidents on the river routes, according to passengers.

Some passengers at Sadarghat River Port Terminal alleged that vessel owners have already started repairing their unfit launches at Keraniganj dockyard ahead of Eid.

During visit to the dockyard on the bank of the River Buriganga, the FE correspondent found workers giving some launches facelift on the occasion of Eid.

There are around 50 dockyards on both sides of the River Buriganga.

The DoS official said a total of 13,000 inland river ships or vessels (both passenger and cargo) have been registered with DoS.

DoS could not fully control unfit vessels plying different river routes due to lack of manpower, according to sources.

"We could not control these unfit vessels because of a shortage of manpower," said a high official of DoS.

DoS has only four surveyors. Inspectors will monitor the fitness of vessels in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Khulna and Barishal.

A high official of the shipping ministry told the FE that the ministry started to work for hiring more manpower for DoS.

Dangerous practice of running unfit river vessels has cost many lives.

A total of 6,408 people died in 653 launch accidents from 1996 to 2015, according to the national committee to protect shipping, roads and railways.

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