On a sweltering August morning, the docks at Hatirjheel lay eerily still. Boats that usually skim the lake’s waters were tethered in silence, pontoons padlocked, and would-be passengers turned away. For thousands of Dhaka residents, a daily lifeline had halted overnight.
For the second time in six weeks, the capital’s water taxi service has been abruptly suspended, this time by its own workers. More than 60 boatmen, ticket sellers, and other staff have refused to work since Monday, demanding higher wages from Karim Group, the private operator that manages the service under the supervision of the city’s development authority, RAJUK.
The strike has left commuters stranded and fuming, forced back into the choking traffic that the taxis were designed to bypass. The two routes linking FDC Gate, Rampura, and Badda normally carry some 20,000 passengers a day. Now, the once-bustling jetties are deserted.
“I normally get home in Rampura within ten minutes by water taxi,” said Shamima Parveen, a banker. “Now I spend an extra hour stuck in traffic. There was no announcement. It’s infuriating.”
Businessman Kazi Hayder, another regular rider, echoed the frustration. “People walk half a kilometre to reach these boats. When they arrive and find everything closed, it’s suffering. They shut down whenever they want.”
The disruption threatens to overload Hatirjheel’s already stretched circular bus system, while exposing deeper cracks in the service’s management. Only weeks ago, RAJUK itself halted operations after Karim Group fell behind on lease payments, resuming service only when arrears were cleared.
Officials now say Karim Group is contractually bound to keep the boats running. “We issued a notice on Monday asking for an explanation within three days,” said one RAJUK executive. “Failure to comply could even lead to lease cancellation.”
When it launched in 2016, the Hatirjheel taxi system was hailed as a modern experiment in easing Dhaka’s suffocating traffic. But repeated suspensions have turned promise into exasperation.
On Thursday, as the idle boats rocked in the lake’s murky water, commuters stared at the locked jetties, an unsettling reminder of how fragile their brief escape from gridlock had become.