MV Ovijan-10 plans to resume services

The MV Ovijan-10 launch that caught fire on the Sugandha River near Jhalakathi Sadar upazila in December last year, leaving at least 47 passengers dead and many missing, is planning to resume operations after repairs.

Hamzalal Sheikh, one of the launch owners, said they would need to replace a major portion of the vessel to make it fit for operation again as it was burnt badly.

The vessel also needs a facelift, he said.

Police seized the launch following the incident and handed it over to the owners recently after a court order, Hamzalal said.

“Now everything depends on the authorities’ decision. We will work under the supervision of an expert team from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). If we can follow all their instructions and can finally satisfy the Department of Shipping’s conditions, we will hopefully be in service again,” he told The Business Post on Thursday.

Hamzalal, who recently secured bail in cases filed over the incident, believes the inferno was premeditated.

He said it happened as he tried to take apart a business syndicate of launch company owners on the Dhaka-Barguna route. “I will run my vessel on the route again to fight back.”

Md Manjurul Kabir, chief engineer and ship surveyor of the shipping department, said the owners had approached them recently for permission to repair the vessel.

“But we have given them a set of conditions as the launch was severely burnt.

If the BUET expert team says after examining the vessel that it can be repaired, we will consider that,” he said.  

He further said the BUET team specialises in this type of work.

“We usually take their expert opinion on complex matters. We have forwarded them the owners’ application for repairing the vessel. The shipping department will then make the final decision according to the rules.” Manjurul said they had sought the BUET team’s opinion as they do not have the capacity to do some measurements, such as the temper of a vessel’s metal body damaged in an inferno.

Professor Dr Md Shahjada Tarafder leads the expert team of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at BUET. He could not be reached for comments.

Hamzalal said the BUET team had already visited the launch. “They have verbally asked us to scrap a major part of the metal body, including the cabin and floors.” He also said the team would supervise the reconstruction and carry out the final inspection before the vessel is repainted.

“We will need to remove everything from all three decks and redecorate them. It will take a minimum of five months,” he said, adding the whole process would cost almost the same as building a new launch.

Earlier, an inquiry committee formed by the shipping ministry, in its report in January this year, said the negligence of four owners and four crew members of the launch was responsible for the fire. It also held three officials of the Department of Shipping and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority responsible. Stating the fire started from the engine, the committee said the total capacity of the two engines should have been 1,100 horsepower according to the registration certificate.

But the owners violated the terms without taking permission from the Department of Shipping and increased the engine capacity to 3,036 horsepower by installing used engines. Whether the modified engines were fit for the launch was not tested by the competent authority, the committee added. After engine modification, the launch made its first trip on December 19 last year and the second one to Barguna from Dhaka on December 23, the day of the fatal accident.

Hamzalal said the legal matters were being settled in court now. “I believe we will get justice.”

Following a court order, police handed over the charred launch in August this year to its owners. It was towed from the Sugandha River to a dockyard in Keraniganj. The launch is now being revamped.

Sources at Al Araf & Company, which owns the vessel, said the launch might resume operations after changing its name. Besides, there are possibilities of changing its Dhaka-Barguna route later.    

The Keraniganj dockyard will replace most of the burnt steel sheets of the launch and keep some of the usable ones during redecoration. The engines of the launch, which were totally burnt, will be replaced.