With about 24,00km of waterways Bangladesh boasts of a wide network river routes. Waterways have been the common, traditional and cheaper mode of transportation for the people here. But frequent maritime accidents and massiveness of some recent ones have led many to wonder over whether the maritime transportation system in the country has evolved with time or it has been totally forsaken by the authorities. In the last 30 years from 1991 to 2021, some 902 waterway accidents had been reported in the country that claimed 3,735 lives, injured 926 people and left over 500 missing, according to the Department of Shipping. The amount of loss in these accidents was not estimated but would cross some millions of taka, according to the data available from the department. In one of the most recent disaster on December 24 last year a pre-dawn blaze broke out around on the Barguna-bound launch Avijan-10 carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka in mid Sugandha River claiming more than 45 lives. Dozens have still been missing. The same day, the shipping ministry formed a seven-member probe committee which submitted its report finally on January 4, this year after its deadline expired. The report revealed that the two engines used in Avijan-10 were 24-year old and had more horsepower than the vessel could capacitate. The faults of the engine were identified as the main cause of the massive fire that night. Read: Jhalakathi launch fire: Probe body submits report