Passenger-less rivers in Dakope as diesel prices push trawler owners out of the trade

The rise in fuel prices has nearly doubled the cost of running trawlers on the river routes of Dakope in the coastal district of Khulna. The cost of diesel for passenger trawlers has risen so much that boatmen are leaving their vessels moored at the ghats and looking for day labour or other alternative income. A river route that was once busy now sees rows of passenger-less trawlers.

Trawler operators Sujit Mondal, Gaffar Hossain Gazi, Abdullah Gazi, Elahi Box, Khalek and Bidhan Sardar say passengers are no longer found on the river routes of Dakope upazila, which is made up of three separate coastal islands, the way they once were.

Talking to them, it emerged that the river distance from Kalabagi, near the Sundarbans, to Chalna launch ghat is about 41 kilometres. There are 29 small and large passenger trawlers on this route, and a single trip burns 8 to 9 litres of diesel.

The fare from Kalabagi to Chalna launch ghat is 80 taka per person. When that fare was set, diesel cost 115 taka a litre. It has now risen by 20 taka to 135 taka a litre — and that gap in the arithmetic is what has pushed trawler owners into losses.

Operators have been forced to charge passengers an extra 10 to 12 taka depending on the distance. Each trawler from Kalabagi to Chalna now carries only around 20 to 25 passengers. In the operators' words, running trawlers with so few passengers will leave them destitute within days.

Only 8 to 9 trawlers now operate on this route. More used to run, but many owners have moved elsewhere or shut their vessels down because of the losses. Whether or not there are passengers, running a trawler each day means paying a driver 650 taka and a worker 500 taka — a fixed cost that has deepened the crisis.

There are alternative unpaved roads that bypass this river route, but they are hard to use in the monsoon. That is why this route mainly gets passengers in the rainy season. The monsoon is now over, and river passengers will take to the roads to reach their destinations faster, making it impossible to even recover the diesel cost on this route.

Without income, trawler owners, drivers and workers will struggle to feed their families. Many have already left the boatman's work and are trying to earn a living through alternative income. Altogether, the diesel price rise and the passenger shortage on the rivers have left trawler owners and operators in despair.

Akbar Sardar, a businessman who travelled from Kalabagi to Chalna by road, said coming by trawler costs more money and also takes more time. During the monsoon, when local roads turn to mud, he used to travel by trawler despite the extra cost, when the fare was 80 taka per person. With fuel prices up, the trawler fare has risen by 10 to 12 taka per person, and with the village roads now dry, he travels by engine-run van on the road to save money.

Bakul Mallick, a passenger trawler operator on the Kalabagi–Chalna route, said there was a time when trawlers on this river carried many passengers and the operators profited from it. River passengers do not want to travel in the dry season; to save time they have chosen the roads, so trawlers get few passengers. With diesel up by 20 taka a litre, trawler fares have also been raised slightly, which has reduced passengers further.

He said most trawler owners and operators on this route have already stopped operating and moved to other professions. The income from running a trawler now is barely enough to run a household. If this continues, he will haul his trawler onto land and work as a day labourer.

Jafar Hawlader, owner of reserve and hire trawlers at Chalna launch ghat, said fares naturally had to be raised after the oil price rose. Running a trawler no longer earns what it once did, and ordinary passengers no longer reserve trawlers as before. If this continues, he will be ruined along with his family, so he is thinking of leaving this profession of many years for an alternative livelihood.

Kamrul Islam, a trawler operator at Lakshmikola ferry ghat, said the river crossing used to cost 5 taka per person. After the sudden diesel price rise, they are forced to charge 6 to 7 taka — the pressure of higher fuel prices has reached even the smallest crossing routes.

Nimai Saha, a retail diesel trader at Chalna bazaar, said that before the price rise he bought a 200-litre barrel of diesel from the Jamuna depot in Khulna for 22,300 taka. Now the same depot charges 26,300 taka for it, and bringing that diesel from Khulna to Chalna bazaar costs another 200 to 250 taka per barrel in transport. Because of the fuel price rise, buyers are also being charged 20 taka more per litre.

Altogether, Dakope's river routes face a two-sided crisis — higher fuel prices on one side, and passengers turning to the roads in the dry season on the other. Trawler owners and operators see no immediate way out, and whether this long-standing profession survives will depend on how the balance between returning passengers and costs changes in the days ahead.