Ferry service thru Karnaphuli River to launch again in February

A ferry service through the Karnaphuli River between Boalkhali upazila and the port city is going to be relaunched next month to avoid the movement of heavy vehicles through the "risky" Kalurghat Bridge.  
 
The Roads and Highways Division is going to restart the ferry service to provide some relief to passengers from the traffic jam on both sides. Two ferries have already been anchored in the river in the Kalurghat area. 

"Initially, we will run two ferries for carrying heavy vehicles. Another one will be kept as a reserve. The construction work of the link road has already been started to run ferry traffic," Pintu Chakma, executive engineer of Roads and Highways Division, Chattogram, said.
 
He also said after starting the ferry service, it will carry heavy vehicles and small vehicles, and trains will run through the bridge.  
 
The century-old bridge was declared "risky" by the railway in 2001. The process for the renovation of the bridge is underway to make it suitable for running trains on Chattogram-Cox's Bazar route. 

Sources concerned said the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has been given the responsibility for a plan to make the bridge suitable for running trains on the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar route. They have already started working on it.
 
"The Bangladesh Railway will float a tender to renovate the bridge based on the report after a feasibility study done by an expert team of BUET. Once the renovation is done, the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar route trains will run through the bridge," Mofizur Rahman, project director of Chattogram-Cox's Bazar Rail Line Project, said.  
 
"65 kilometres of rail tracks out of 100 kilometres of Dohazari-Cox's Bazar rail line have already been installed.  We are working relentlessly to complete the remaining work by 2023," he added. 
 
At a railway event in Chattogram last Wednesday, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said the construction work of a new Kalurghat Bridge will start at the beginning of next year.

In 2008, the ferry service was relaunched on the river in the Kalurghat area for six months thanks to facilitating some major renovations of the Kalurghat Bridge.  After the country's independence, the ferry service was operational multiple times for various reasons, according to residents of Boalkhali upazila.