The launch of the long-awaited Banshbaria–Sandwip ferry service was hailed as a lifeline for the island’s nearly 4,50,000 residents, promising an end to decades of perilous sea crossings.
Yet, less than 18 months after its high-profile inauguration, the vital link between Chattogram and Sandwip is fast unravelling amid rapid siltation, tidal disruption, and inadequate terminal infrastructure.
Inaugurated in March 2025 in the presence of six interim government advisers, the Banshbaria-Guptachhara route was designed to carry passengers, buses, freight lorries, and private vehicles directly across the channel.
Today, those hopes are sinking fast as travellers face hours-long delays, hazardous open-water transfers, and exorbitant alternative transport costs.
Trapped by tides and silt
Ferry operations have become heavily dictated by the shifting seabed and erratic tidal cycles.
On 2 September, the ferry Kapotaksha was stranded at sea for nearly eight hours on its way from Guptachhara to Banshbaria after striking a mudbank caused by severe siltation. Even after reaching the mainland, passengers and vehicles waited hours for the tide to rise before they could disembark.
While officials from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) insist that at least one daily round trip is maintained, carrying 200 to 250 passengers alongside heavy cargo, local commuters tell a different story.
“The service is completely unpredictable,” said one local driver. “Where we used to make two or three crossings a day, siltation now restricts us to just one, if we are lucky.”
Severe weather also halts operations for days, leaving the island virtually cut off.
Knee-deep mud and the perilous “red boats”
The human cost of the operational breakdown is most acute at low tide. With proper landing infrastructure missing, passengers regularly wade through knee- to-waist-high water to reach the shore, leaving elderly travellers, children, and the sick acutely vulnerable.
The situation on the Chattogram side is equally dangerous. Khademul Islam, coordinator of advocacy group Amra Sandwipbasi, pointed out a fundamental structural defect, “Vessels depart Sandwip during high tide, but by the time they arrive at Chattogram, the water level can rise up to 15 feet. Because there is no functional high-water terminal, the mid-water landing stage is entirely submerged.”
To bridge the gap, passengers are loaded onto small, open wooden craft locally known as “red boats”.
Each boat shuttles 15 to 20 people at a time back and forth to the main jetty, a painstaking process requiring up to 30 trips that takes hours and places lives at severe risk.
The waters off Sandwip have a deadly history. In 2017, 18 people lost their lives at Guptachhara Ghat while disembarking onto a small boat.
In 2022, four people, including three young children, drowned when a speedboat capsized in rough weather, while an elderly passenger drowned the same year during a vessel transfer.
Astronomical costs and a new emergency plan
Maintaining a navigable channel through the bay’s shifting sands is proving to be a financial nightmare.
BIWTA Executive Engineer Md Rezaur Rashid Khondker acknowledged that the route suffers from exceptionally rapid siltation, requiring between Tk8 crore and Tk10 crore in annual dredging alone to keep it open.
When ferries grind to a halt, stranded commuters are forced onto speedboats, paying Tk300 instead of the affordable Tk80 ferry fare.
Local residents insist that ad-hoc dredging will never fix the root problem, demanding functional high-water terminals and tidal-aligned schedules.
In response, despite spending Tk120 crore on the original terminal, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved a fresh Tk136 crore project to overhaul and reinforce the Banshbaria Jetty.
