Due to irregular schedules and poor management, the much-hyped waterbus of Buriganga and Turag has failed to gain popularity in its six years of service, taking the steam out of the government's efforts to reduce the city's traffic congestion.

Having failed to get the expected outcome, the government has recently leased out the service to a private company.

But the service has become worse following the private company's takeover, alleged passengers.

Irregular timetable, lack of publicity and mismanagement of the authorities concerned are the main reasons for the poor quality of service, said passengers while talking to this correspondent at the Gabtoli landing station on August 8.

“Previously, the government authorities operated four to five round trips a day. But now the private company operates only two trips a day,” said Humayun Ahmed, a trader who often travels on this route.

Of the two trips, one is in the morning and the other in the evening. But the operators follow no timetable, alleged passengers.

“We have to wait several hours to travel in the waterbus, as they [operators] do not start until all seats are filled,” said Solaiman Miah, a staff of a private college, who frequently travels on this route.

Mohammad Russel, an administrative staff of Midford Hospital, said, “Many people do not know whether the service exists or not. The operators must conduct campaigns to make people aware of the service.”

The operators, on the other hand, claimed that they had to cut trips as they did not get enough passengers.

The state-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) introduced the service in August 2010 with two waterbuses on Sadarghat-Gabtoli route. The vessels had cost around Tk 1.10 crore and each vessel can carry 35 passengers.

But within a few months of its introduction, the service proved ineffective due to irregular schedule, frequent engine failures and inconvenient terminal facilities.

In a bid to improve the service, the government on July 2013 introduced four more waterbuses with a cost of around Tk 3 crore. Each vessel had the capacity to carry 82 passengers. But they also did not click.

Later, the government in November 2014 added six new waterbuses to its fleet at a cost of around Tk 5 crore. With the six vessels, the number rose to 12 and each new vessel had the capacity to carry 46 passengers.

Of the 12 vessels, eight are in operation and the rest are out of order, said BIWTC officials.

In June this year, the BIWTC leased out the service to a private company -- M/S Imran Traders.

Visiting the Gabtoli landing station on August 11 where the waterbuses anchor, five to six passengers were seen waiting to board the waterbuses. But they did not know when the vessel would arrive at the station. Some returned after waiting for a long time.

“I have been waiting here for more than an hour. I don't know when the waterbus will come. There is nobody here to give us information. Now I will go to Babubazar by bus,” said Mozammel Hossain, a motor mechanic.

While passengers and vendors, who sell food items at the terminal, alleged that people suffer a lot due to insufficient trips of waterbuses, operators claimed they have cut the number of trips due to lack of passengers.

“We've reduced our trips as the number of passengers is very poor. If we operate a vessel without filling up all the seats, we have to incur losses,” said Sufiullah, a ticket seller of M/S Imran Traders.

“For example, there are 46 seats in this waterbus. We have got only 17 passengers on board. The fare for each passenger is Tk 40 and we sold tickets worth Tk 680. But the fuel cost of a trip is around Tk 1,600,” he claimed.

Seeking anonymity, a BIWTC official said they cannot take any action against the private company for reducing trips, as the leasing contract does not mention anything about how many trips would be operated a day.

However, BIWTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman told The Daily Star that the private company is trying to make the service popular.

More than 100 buses operate daily on the Sadarghat-Gabtoli route. The journey by bus takes up to at least two and a half hours during rush hour. But waterbus covers its 16km route in just one hour and 30 minutes.