Thousands of passengers to and from 19 southwestern districts are severely suffering at Paturia and Daulatdia ferry terminals as shortage of ferries has been hampering the service since Wednesday.

The passengers are being stuck at the two ferry terminals for hours to cross the Padma river. There was a five-kilometre-long tailback at Daulatdia in Rajbari and a three-kilometre-long one at Paturia in Manikganj around 3:00pm yesterday.

During visits to the two terminals, ferry passengers told this correspondent that they had to wait for four to five hours to cross the river.

Senjuti Akhter said she was going home in Magura with her family members including her nine-month child. She added their bus reached Paturia terminal around 11:00am but could not cross the river till 3:00pm.

Issues like going to toilet and feeding the child were serious hassles for them, she observed.

Sher Ali of Jhenaidah, Maruf Hasan of Jessore, Nahar E Jannat of Narail and Dipak Pal of Faridpur, among other passengers, echoed the same. All of them were waiting at Paturia for more than four hours to board the ferry.

Contacted, Manager (Commerce) of BIWTC's Aricha office Zillur Rahman said six of the 19 ferries on the Paturia-Daulatdia route were not operating.

Ro-Ro Ferries Khan Jahan Ali and Shah Ali were sent to Narayanganj dockyard on September 14, and utility ferry Kopoti was sent there on September 12 for repairing.

K type ferry Kumari and Ro-Ro ferry Shah Jalal were being repaired at a floating workshop in Paturia since September 13. On the other side, Ro-Ro ferry Bir Shreshtha Hamidur Rahman returned to operation on Thursday night after four days of renovation work at the floating workshop. But another utility ferry Banalata was sent to the workshop for repairing.

Jahan said Ro-Ro ferries Bir Shreshtha Matiur Rahman could not be operated at night due to weakness of its engine and Hasna Hena was out of operation for several times on Tuesday and Wednesday due to mechanical problems.

Earlier, ferry services on the route were severely disrupted for more than two weeks before and after the Eid due to strong currents in the river.