DHAKA:  To cash in on a rush of homebound holidaymakers ahead of Eid, dilapidated launches are being veneered into new looks in various docks of Keraniganj on the Buriganga riverbank.

During a spot visit, the banglanews24.com.bd correspondent found some 27 docks busy with paint-and-brush work round the clock.

Mohammad Hossain Baby, the owner of Baby’s Dock at South Keraniganj, told the reporters that his dock has been booked till the Eid-ul-Fitr for repair of the launches.

“Launches with or without fitness certificates – they are now putting on new colour and repair works are taking place ahead of the Eid,” said Baby, who has been in the dock business for the last 40 years.

The launch owners rent the docks and there are some 200 people who do the repair, Baby said.

Another dock owner, Rafiq Uddin Bhuiyan of Bismillah Marine Engineering, said surveyors from the Department of Shipping often come to see but they don’t come regularly.

As per rule, fitness test and survey should take place every year and there are some 30 inspectors working for the shipping department.

In 2005, some 100 launches were declared unfit while the number stood at 107 the following year. But all these were in operation as no one was stop the predators.

According to Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), around 5,500 people died in the last 13 years in various launch capsizes and river-route accidents.

Some 8,000 launches ply different river routes while only 2,082 have registration with the shipping department. Some 1,354 launches were dubbed faulty by the department and declared unfit, which are yet plying different routes

When contacted, BIWTA Chairman Abdul Malek Mia told banglanews24.com.bd that unfit launches may take the chance to ply during the Eid festival for high demand and drop passengers nearby places instead of jetties.

But, he said, “We will not include the names of unfit launches in the schedule during the Eid-ul-Fitr.”

BDST 2100 HRS, AUGUST 20, 2010.