Though the rescue vessel ‘Pratya’ arrived at Paturia ferry ghat in the Padma River on Friday afternoon, the operation to salvage the sunken ferry ‘Rajanigandha’ has not been started till evening due to overturned position of the ferry in the river.

On the other hand, the people who lost their vehicles including trucks and pickup vans in the capsize expressed anger over the headway of the rescue operation by the authorities concerned.

One of affected businessmen Mujibul Huq said they were earlier asked that the rest of the sunken vehicles would be retrieved upon arrival of the vessel ‘Pratya’.

Though the vessel arrived around 2 pm, the authorities could not start the salvation operation till Friday evening, he alleged.

Md Abdul Hamid, deputy director of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) in Manikganj, said they have so far retrieved three out of nine capsized vehicles from the river in this connection.

“We haven’t identified the position of the rest of the vehicles but now we are concentrating on the salvation of the sunken ferry,” he said.

Shah Jahan, director of the Bangladesh Inland and Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said divers of the FSCD, navy and BIWTA were working together to rescue the missing vehicles.

He said they haven’t recovered the body one Humayun Kabir who went missing in the capsize till Friday.

Asked about the delay of starting the rescue operation, the BIWTA official said the position of a floating ferry and a sinking ferry is not the same. This sinking ferry is completely upside down. So there is a delay in conducting the operation. However, efforts were on to start the visible work of ferry rescue.

Commodore Arif Ahmed Mostafa, chairman of BIWTA said they worked to tie several solid parts of the sinking ferry with ropes since Friday morning.

Ten air lifting bags were dipped in the ferry while air will be entered in the bags to conduct the salvation operation, he said, adding that the main operation of the rescue has not been started till 4 pm on Friday.  

He said they postponed the rescue operation for Friday at 6:30 pm while the rescue will start next morning.

On Wednesday morning, the ferry with pickup trucks and covered vans sank in the river.

Two separate probe bodies were formed over the ferry capsize on Wednesday.

Manikganj District Commissioner Rehana Akhter formed one of the committees while another was formed by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC).