Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study

Bangladesh is a riverine country and communication by waterways is of great importance especially in the southern region of the country. From Chandpur southwards, waterway is the only means of transport and so a large number of people has to travel by motor launches in the coastal areas and inland....

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Main Authors: Naznin Afrose Huq, Ashraf Mahmood Dewan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2006
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/1/Geografia_%282%2C1_%2819-30%29.pdf
id ukm-1568
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-15682016-12-14T06:29:48Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/ Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study Naznin Afrose Huq, Ashraf Mahmood Dewan, Bangladesh is a riverine country and communication by waterways is of great importance especially in the southern region of the country. From Chandpur southwards, waterway is the only means of transport and so a large number of people has to travel by motor launches in the coastal areas and inland. Since the early 1950's, motor launch services have become popular and in the period 1997-98 there were 1,853 registered launches operating 227 routes. But this important mode is ridden with tragic disasters every year, incurring a heavy toll of human lives. Since 1977, there were 248 motor launch accidents recorded by BIWTA (Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority) with a loss of 2,309 1ives, 374 persons injured and 208 persons missing. This paper attempts to roughly trace out the causes and the geographical distribution of the accidents through an analysis of a time series data covering the period between 1977 and 2000. It was found that the most frequent type or cause of launch accidents was collision, followed by foundering and overloading. The least frequent accident types were due to under-water currents, shoals, leaning electricity poles and country boats travelling without lights at night and manned by untrained operators, followed by cyclones. Interestingly, overcrowding did not seem to be the most typical of launch disasters in the country Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2006 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/1/Geografia_%282%2C1_%2819-30%29.pdf Naznin Afrose Huq, and Ashraf Mahmood Dewan, (2006) Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 2 (1). pp. 19-30. ISSN 2180-2491 http://www.ukm.my/geografia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description Bangladesh is a riverine country and communication by waterways is of great importance especially in the southern region of the country. From Chandpur southwards, waterway is the only means of transport and so a large number of people has to travel by motor launches in the coastal areas and inland. Since the early 1950's, motor launch services have become popular and in the period 1997-98 there were 1,853 registered launches operating 227 routes. But this important mode is ridden with tragic disasters every year, incurring a heavy toll of human lives. Since 1977, there were 248 motor launch accidents recorded by BIWTA (Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority) with a loss of 2,309 1ives, 374 persons injured and 208 persons missing. This paper attempts to roughly trace out the causes and the geographical distribution of the accidents through an analysis of a time series data covering the period between 1977 and 2000. It was found that the most frequent type or cause of launch accidents was collision, followed by foundering and overloading. The least frequent accident types were due to under-water currents, shoals, leaning electricity poles and country boats travelling without lights at night and manned by untrained operators, followed by cyclones. Interestingly, overcrowding did not seem to be the most typical of launch disasters in the country
format Article
author Naznin Afrose Huq,
Ashraf Mahmood Dewan,
spellingShingle Naznin Afrose Huq,
Ashraf Mahmood Dewan,
Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
author_facet Naznin Afrose Huq,
Ashraf Mahmood Dewan,
author_sort Naznin Afrose Huq,
title Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
title_short Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
title_full Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
title_fullStr Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
title_full_unstemmed Launch disasters in Bangladesh: a geographical study
title_sort launch disasters in bangladesh: a geographical study
publisher Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi
publishDate 2006
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1568/1/Geografia_%282%2C1_%2819-30%29.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:33:40Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:33:40Z
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