Trips across the river Buriganga

The country boats, both mechanised and manual, ferrying passengers across the Buriganga River, have long been a common spectacle. With the Buriganga Bridge operating from the Babu Bazar point, there is, however, no end to the operation of light ferry boats. According to many ferry passengers, crossing the road bridge by motorised transports takes a longer time than spent on the ferry boats. An FE photograph of passengers crossing the monsoon river by an overcrowded motorised boat stands out prominently. There are other such boats in the vicinity, a few manoeuvred manually. That the boats are carrying their passengers to workplaces, educational institutions and other destinations could be made out quite clearly. The passengers' unfurled umbrellas make it clear that it is raining lightly.
Given the boats being filled with passengers, and moving across a river full to the brim, many might find the trips fraught with risks. To the great relief of the passengers, the revolting stench that fills the air while on boats doesn't make the ferry trips a terrible experience during monsoon. Thanks to the sharp drop in water level, during the dry seasons the river's water turns quite thick and fetid. In those days, many ferry-using people would feel compelled to opt for the substitute --- the Buriganga Bridge, to boats to go to the other side of the river. In the past when travelling across the river by a bridge was a pipedream, people would travel between the two banks on country boats. Light, mechanised boats had yet to start plying the river route.
With the southern bank of the Buriganga getting filled with fast sprawling urbanised areas, including busy commercial pockets, population density continues to stifle the area. Settlers continue to rush to the areas further south to build new residential pockets interspersed with urban commercial sites. Road communication network, the prerequisite for a particular area's uplift, continues to expand to all sides in the vast area. Besides, small and medium garment and local clothing industries continue to come up in many reserved pockets. The workforce required for these factories mostly resides in the capital. Their chief modes of travel to the workplaces are the ferry boats; a few having a fear of travelling by water, especially by small boats, opt for road transports plying the bridge. But a great disincentive remains in the form of the lengthy time required for the short travel, connecting the two banks of the river.
Given this inconvenience in commuting between the Babu Bazar Ghat and the greater Keraniganj points, people residing in the two areas for long continue to give serious thoughts to find a pragmatic and lasting solution to the problem. The vast swathes constituting the areas opposite Buriganga's Dhaka bank are full of enormous commercial prospects. The 'RMG units' operating there have the prospects for emerging as a vital sector of the local economy. Five to six decades ago, the vast area comprised croplands and quiet rural areas. In course of time, the middle and lower-middle class people from Dhaka city got engaged in a veritable spree of buying landed properties. Eventually, they were joined by the moneyed people from the neighbouring villages. It was in the mid-eighties that ambitious people began pondering buying commercial plots at Jinjira and other points. Their enterprising spirit didn't fail to pay them back.
The history of ferry boats in the Buriganga is integral to that of the growth of a business hub and new settlements on the southern bank of the river. But these boats have been plying between the two banks since long. The villagers had to turn to boats whenever they were compelled to visit the 'Dhaka town'. It's amazing to see how radically the scenario has changed!
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