Passenger Launch Accidents Time to

Wake up from Hibernation

Dr. Mir Tareque Ali, Dr. Md. Mashiur Rahaman & Dr. N. M. Golam Zakaria
Faculty Members
Department of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology
E-mail : mtarequeali@ name.buet.ac.bd

Worldwide Ferry Safety Association (WFSA), a non-profit organization

concerning the improvement of ferry safety globally, has recently published
a list of top five countries for ferry (passenger ship) accidents within the
period of 2000 to 2014, in which unfortunately Bangladesh is at the top
position followed by Senegal, Tanzania, Indonesia and Philippines.
Moreover, according to this study by WFSA, 95% of the total ferry
accidents occurred in the developing countries, claiming about 17,000 lives
including those missing.

Although the above-mentioned scenario of passenger vessel accidents

might not be alarming for our governments; still for organizations like
International Maritime Organization (IMO), a specialized agency of UN with

responsibility of global maritime safety, the situation has definitely reached

to a worrying proportion. Even though many of these accidents involve non
conventional domestic water-crafts that fall outside the IMO regulations, yet
IMO feels the urgency to enhance the safety of vessels carrying
passengers on non-international voyages in certain part of the world like
Bangladesh. In order to address this particular problem concerning the
huge number of death toll due to launch accidents at our inland waterways,
IMO and Interferry, the trade association for WFSA, have already started a
ferry safety project for the developing countries to cut the fatalities
significantly through technical cooperation, workshop etc. Worthwhile to
mention here that IMO and Interferry has already jointly organized a
training course for launch crews in Bangladesh and since 2013, WFSA is
arranging

a ferry design competition internationally for students.

Surprisingly, to design a safe and affordable passenger vessel for Dhaka

Barisal route was chosen for the first competition in 2013. Considering the
seriousness of this issue, IMO is already prompted to develop, adopt and
implement safety codes for non-conventional water-crafts like passenger
launches for developing countries like Bangladesh.

Undoubtedly, this could be an excellent opportunity for our country to

improve the safety standard of passengers travelling at our rivers. So,
straightaway we should seek for technical assistance as well as other
relevant support from international organizations like IMO and Interferry,.
However, depending only on outside assistance would not be enough to
solve this long-lasting problem, parallely we should form a working group
for safety of our passengers at rivers, involving stakeholders from different

levels. Lets now explore some long-lasting and challenging factors on this
issue, that actually demand solutions from our side.
At present, a huge number of water-crafts of different types are plying at
our inland waterways without any valid documents of permission like
registration certificate and fitness survey certificate. A long-term plan should
be taken to gradually bring these vessels under registration, which will not
only improve the over-all safety at our rivers but also the government will
earn revenue from these vessels.

According to the recent statistics of Department of Shipping (DoS), about

2000 passenger vessels are plying at different water-routes of our country,
80% of them are relatively small in size and they are not at all suitable for
plying at rough water-routes. Among these small-size vessels, nearly 200
are of sunken deck type, which normally carry passengers in their hull. A
number of investigation committee reports on launch accident

have

identified sunken-type as most vulnerable specially at rough water routes.

As for example, after M. L. Pinak-6 tragedy around 15 sunken deck type
vessels were withdrawn from service only for a temporary period of time.
So, if we really concern about safety, then these vulnerable small-size
launches should be taken away from service as early as possible.

Since a large number of vessels at our rivers are without any valid
documents, then there is no reason to believe that these vessels would
employ licensed drivers and masters to operate them. Moreover, currently

there are only three government training centres (DEPTC) at Narayangang,

Barisal and Madaripur for deck and engine personnel, which is way below
the current demand. Both public and private sectors should take initiative to
set up more training centres for our inland masters and drivers. Meanwhile
the training course organized by IMO and Interferry to develop the
knowledge and skill of our launch crews is definitely an excellent
opportunity for us, still the key issue is until the government implement this
course for our launch crews all over the country at different locations, the
benefit from this training could not be achieved. At the same time, current
licencing system for masters and crews should be upgraded incorporating
practical test of vessel operation.

At present a ship surveyor spends only 15 to 20 minutes for the yearly

fitness survey of an inland passenger vessel. On the contrary, according to
inland shipping rule 2001, a ship surveyor has to check 21 different items
during fitness survey. So, a survey certificate doesn't give any guarantee
that the survey of the vessel is properly performed. It is true that with only
four surveyors it is not possible to properly survey around 10,000 vessels in
a year. So, to improve the safety of passenger vessels not only the more
ship surveyors need appointment, most importantly of all the present 20minute survey system should be upgraded with strict monitoring.
Every year, especially during eid and puja, it is an usual sight that launches
leaving Sadarghat terminal with passengers two or, three times than its
registered capacity, although according to inland shipping ordinance 1976,
the Traffic Inspector at the terminal, among other items must check the

number of passengers before giving it permission to leave (voyage

declaration). A viable solution to tackle overloading problem could be if
passengers buy ticket before entering the terminal to get on board a
launch.
When a passenger vessel has watertight deck with adequate number of
partition, then even it capsizes due to accident, it could remain afloat in that
position allowing sufficient time to rescue passengers. that's why a ship
itself is the best life saving device for it's passengers. Unfortunately, due to
lack of watertight deck, most of our passenger launches when encountered
an accident capsizes and sink immediately. Moreover, most of the launches
do not have enough live saving appliances like life jacket, life bouy and
most surpriseingly nobody knows whether these will work properly or not
since they are never checked properly.

Finally, to prevent launch accidents at our inland waterways, the support

from IMO and Interferry would definitely bring a positive impact if it is
implemented properly and timely with strict monitoring.