The West Bengal government has started the process of building jetties in the ghats in Murshidabad district. The jetties will be built in Sagardighi, Lalbagh, Behrampore and 20 other ghats in the district.
State transport department authorities – headed by minister Suvendu Adhikary – has been preparing a report on this. The ferry service is one of the major modes of transportation in the district.
A large number of people living in Murshidabad and adjoining districts travel across the Ganga every day on work. However, only two of the ghats have properly constructed jetties. As a result, daily commuters face difficulties in boarding the vessels and it involves a huge amount of risk. The situation is worse during monsoons.
An official stated that while attending an event in Lalbagh, the minister had noticed that none of the passengers were made to wear life-jackets while on the vessel. Following this, strict instructions have been sent to enforce regulations on the wearing of life jackets.
Passengers have also complained that some of the vessels carry way more passengers than they are supposed to and pose risk to people’s lives.
Officials said that to start with, jetties are being built for those ghats which have heavy load of passengers every day. Locals people have been demanding this at ferry ghats for decades now.
