Salvage vessel ‘Rustom’ on Saturday joined the operation to rescue the ferry that sank at Paturia terminal with 21 vehicles on Wednesday. The salvage operation resumed at 8 am while ‘Rustom’ reached the spot at 9am. ‘Rustom’ is now keeping the sunken covered vans and trucks rescued earlier on the river bank while ‘Hamza’ is trying to salvage another sunken covered van. Read: Paturia ferry accident: Rustom to join rescue ops; one more van retrieved So far, five trucks, seven covered vans and three motorcycles have been recovered. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) joint director and in-charge of the rescue operation Fazlur Rahman said another sunken covered van has been detected and they are trying to retrieve it from water. “When all the vehicles will be recovered we will start operation to salvage the sunken ferry. We will take alternative plan it the ferry could not be rescued with ‘Hamza’ and ‘Rustom’,” he said. The process to handover the retrieved vehicles to the owners has started and some of the owners held a human chain at 12 pm on the river bank seeking compensation from the government. A 3-km tailback has been created at Paturia terminal due to movement of a limited number of ferries. The two probe committees formed by the Ministry of Shipping and Manikganj district administration visited the accident spot at Paturia terminal-5 on Thursday evening. Read: Ferry capsizes at Paturia dock Head of the district probe committee, additional magistrate Sanwarul Haque said that "a report will be submitted within seven working days". Around 9.30am on October 27, the ferry -- Amanat Shah -- capsized near Paturia's number five ferry terminal with 14 trucks, vans and seven motorcycles on board. The vessel tilted after water gushed in through a crack in its bottom while it was preparing to anchor at the dock.

Paturia ferry terminal saw a mad rush of homebound people ahead of Eid despite a so-called decision of  Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) to suspend  day time ferry services. The corporation took the decision late Friday night to suspend daytime ferry services on Paturia-Daulatdia and Shimulia-Banglabazar routes from Saturday morning as per government instructions to curb the spread of coronavirus infection ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr. However, three ferries were selected to transport ambulances and hearse vehicles. Also read: Ferry services suspended to contain spread of Covid While visiting Paturia ferry terminal early Saturday morning, the UNB correspondent saw flocks of people stranded there, completely unaware of the hastily made late night decision of BIWTC. Although some of them were forced to return, hundreds of passengers continued to hold their ground in an attempt to celebrate Eid with the loved ones at any cost. When an ambulance carrying a dead body was getting into Madhobilota, a ferry kept for emergency situations, hundreds of these people forced themselves onto it. Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees 45 more deaths with 1285 new cases The same incident happened with two other ferries anchored at separate terminals of Paturia. After a few hours, two of those ferries, carrying hundreds of people left the terminals and this was more or less the entire story of the day, which means the late night suspension of BIWTC has proved insufficient. Also read: Bangladesh detects first case of Indian Coronavirus strain However, Jillur Rahman, deputy general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Aricha office said, “At all times the plying of water vessels has been suspended following BIWTC’s decision. Only three ferries  are operational for emergency use. But we are facing difficulties in operating them because of excessive pressure by people wanting to get in.”