The body of Rajat Kamal, the missing victim of North Guwahati's boat accident has not been found yet and the news of recovery of it from Mandia area of Barpeta, about 95 kilometer from the spot of accident had turned out to be false.
Two fishermen found a bloated body and police initially identified the same as Rajat Kamal, who was swept away by the gushing water of river Brahmaputra when he fell from the ill fated boat and could not save himself .But later the family members negated the claim.
This is noteworthy that four persons were confirmed dead as all others managed to swim to safety. Altogether 26 persons were on the boat. The incident also exposed the callousness of the boat operator as well the Inland Water Transport authorities.
The transport department has suspended the services of mechanised boats on the Brahmaputra in Guwahati. This abrupt decision has however caused tremendous problem across the state as there are no less than 50 Ghats in this 700 kilometre river from Sadiya to Dhubri and in most of them mechanised private boats are the life line.
The Government can not stop the operation continuously for long and bound to open as there are no alternative arrangement for crossing the river.
Waterway is the lifeline of people living on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in North Guwahati. Not many buses ply between North Guwahati and Guwahati and the route is also much longer. Because of this situation, people prefer travelling by boats to buses.
"Earlier, we had suspended the service of mechanised boats but it had to be resumed as people demanded it. We will consider plying more ships. Three ships are ready. We are hoping to operate them by next week. We will take all measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," the Assam PWD Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma assured.
He disclosed that the construction work for a proposed bridge over the Brahmaputra connecting Guwahati with North Guwahati would commence in next six months and the work would be completed by 2022.
