Like roads and waterways, air transportation has also been affected by dense fog prevailing over the country. A domestic flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines is landing at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the city. — Photo: KAZ Sumon Dense fog continues to disrupt all modes of transportation, mainly road, water and air, affecting movement of the people and goods across the country.
Many parts of the country have been covered with thick fog as mercury continues to decline, also disrupting the normal life and hampering trade and economic activities.
According to met office in Dhaka, the lowest temperature was recorded at 11.9 degrees Celsius in Dinajpur and Panchagarh on Wednesday while the highest 29.6 degree Celsius in Cox's Bazar.
The city dwellers were also feeling a chill in the air as Dhaka's temperature dropped to 15.6 degrees Celsius on the day.
The met office in its forecast said moderate to thick fog might sweep across the country during mid-night until morning and it might continue till noon in the next couple of days. The weather might remain mainly dry with partly cloudy skies, it said.
The dense fog has already started disrupting the services of ferries, airlines and water transports in the country, interrupting the people's daily life and causing the most sufferings to the working people.
More than a hundred water vessels, including a number of passenger launches, hundreds of trucks and busses remained stranded on both sides of numerous launch and ferry ghats in many districts.
Many launches were stuck in the mid-river on Wednesday night and resumed operations 10 to 12 hours after gradually dissipating the fog. The situation caused major sufferings to hundreds travelling on the ferries.
Launches got stuck for hours on the Dhaka- Paturia-Daulatdia; Shimulia-Kathalbari; Chandpur-Shariatpur-Vola-Lakkhipur; Bheduria-lsharhaat river routes from Tuesday 8.00 pm to Wednesday 8.00 pm, Mohammad Nazrul Islam Misha, public relations officer of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC), told the FE.
He said the water vessels of almost all routes in the Middle and Southern regions had to suspend operations due to lack of necessary visibility. They had to suspend services of 22 ferries at night as a measure to save lives, he added.
However, the vessels resumed journey as soon as the visibility started improving Wednesday morning.
He said that all the vessels travelling through these routes were asked to be careful while in the mid-river. The country boats, fishing boats, lighter vessels, cargos have been asked to run along the riverside.
Trucks and pickup-vans, loaded with daily essentials on the highways, also faced difficulties due to foggy weather as it took additional 10 to 14 hours to reach their destinations.
Md Imran Ali Master, a Karwan Bazar-based vegetable trader, said that the delays of trucks were affecting smooth supply of vegetables. He said that only 30 vegetable-laden trucks reached at Karwan Bazar in the early morning as against around 200 in the normal days.
He said that the prices of vegetables showed uptrend in the morning amid short-supply, but it declined significantly in the evening, following surplus of the products.
Fares of vehicles have also been increased by the owners as it is taking additional hours for trucks to reach Dhaka from different areas like Bogra, Rangpur and other districts, he said.
Meanwhile, more than 30 domestic and international flights were delayed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) early Wednesday due to fog, said officials.
A senior official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said the airport's runway became invisible at around 12:00 in the midnight and the situation continued until 10:00 am Wednesday or for a period of nearly 10 hours.
During this time, schedules of different fights disrupted and later rescheduled, he added.
However, he also said the flight operations became normal after 9:00am on the day.
In the meantime, at least six flights were diverted to other airports because of unfavourable weather condition in Dhaka.
Among those flights, a Thai Airlines flight was diverted to Bangkok which was supposed to land in Dhaka at around 12:15 am, a Saudi Airlines flight landed in Kolkata instead of Dhaka while a cargo from China was diverted to Myanmar and a US-Bangla flight landed in Chittagong being failed to land in Dhaka.
Besides, several flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Malindo Air, Kuwait Air, China Southern, Emirates and Air Asia were also disrupted.
Fog-related accidents in the country usually increase during the winter as many privately-owned launches, buses operate by disobeying the government cautionary orders, said officials.
Experts suggested ensuring strict monitoring and capital punishment to prevent risky journey and save people's lives and properties.
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