With luggage in hand, Mehedi Hasan walked towards the city's Gabtoli landing station to catch a waterbus to Sadarghat.

The clock said noon and he looked worried as there was no vessel around. He was looking for someone to inform him about the waterbus service schedule.

Unfortunately, there was no one nearby.

“A waterbus might be here later, but I don't know when,” a street vendor told the passenger.

It was a huge frustration for Mehedi, an employee at a private hospital in Gazipur. He stood alone, looking at the river whether any waterbus came.

“I prefer travelling on waterways to roads. But I am in a dilemma over whether I should wait further,” he told this correspondent on November 15.

Around 2:30pm, a waterbus with six passengers reached the landing station.

But his two-and-a-half-hour wait was far from over. The vessel would not start for Sadarghat for lack of passengers.

By around 4:00pm, some 40 passengers boarded the vessel and the journey had finally begun.

He reached Badamtoli terminal near Sadarghat around 5:15pm.

The trip is reflective of the overall standards of the waterbus service which is now on the verge of collapse.

The state-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) had introduced the service in August 2010 with two locally-made waterbuses to ease city traffic. Each of the 35-capacity vessels had cost the government around Tk 1.10 crore.

Within a few months, the service was unpopular with passengers, mainly due to irregular schedule.

A handful of passengers sitting inside a vessel. The photos were taken recently. Photo: Palash Khan

In a bid to improve the service, the government in July 2013 had introduced four more waterbuses, with capacity for 82 passengers each, at a cost of around Tk 3 crore. But the move did not work out.

In November 2014, the government added six new waterbuses, with 46-capacity each, to the fleet, spending about Tk 5 crore. With them, the total number of vessels rose to 12.

After failing to make the service popular, the BIWTC in June last year leased out the vessels to private firm Imran Traders.

Yet the service is getting worse day by day, said passengers and locals in Gabtoli.

“Very often the lessee operates only a single trip a day. Even there are days without any trip,” said Babul Akhter, who travels the route regularly.

Ali Ashraf, proprietor of Imran Traders, said they cut the number of trips due to lack of passengers.

“A round trip costs us around Tk 3,000 against our earning of about Tk 500,” he told The Daily Star.

BIWTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman said they already had several meetings with the leaseholder to improve the service.

He expressed optimism that the service would soon be improved.

A passenger has to pay Tk 40 for travelling from Badamtoli to Gabtoli.

Of the 12 waterbuses, seven are plying on the route, while the BIWTC has sent the rest of the vessels to other routes in Narayanganj and Rangamati, said BIWTC officials.