Century-Old Heritage Paddle Steamers Face Extinction Crisis

Negligence by the state-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) has pushed four nearly century-old historic paddle steamers, rare global heritage items, to the brink of destruction. Across the entire world, only a handful of such steam vessels remain in existence, with four located in Bangladesh. Among these six historical vessels, PS Gazi, PS Kiwi, PS Ostrich, PS Mahsud, PS Lepcha, and PS Turn, only the PS Mahsud is currently operational under a private lessee. However, BIWTC has failed to reach a clear decision regarding the remaining three vessels, leaving their future survival in extreme jeopardy despite their national historical value.

Historical records indicate that 25 Kolkata-assembled paddle steamers came to then-East Pakistan following the 1947 partition. Modernization attempts in 1978 and 1993 allowed vessels like the PS Mahsud, PS Ostrich, PS Lepcha, and PS Turn to ferry millions of passengers along the Dhaka-Barishal-Khulna route until 2019. However, persistent lack of proper maintenance by BIWTC led to repeated mechanical breakdowns, and operations completely halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the PS Mahsud was briefly renovated for 10 million taka to run as a day tourist service, low passenger volume led to its eventual leasing to a private company for 150,000 taka per month.

Concerns remain high after previous management failures resulted in the severe damage of PS Ostrich, which was unlawfully leased without tender to an entity that dismantled its superstructure and defaulted on rent. BIWTC Director of Commerce Md. Ashikuzzaman stated that plans are underway to soon publish newspaper advertisements to lease out the remaining three vessels as well, adding that the Mahsud has been leased out and the matter of leasing the rest is under consideration. Meanwhile, legal proceedings continue against the previous lessee to recover long-overdue rent arrears for the devastated PS Ostrich vessel.

Despite earlier commitments made by former Shipping Advisor Sakhawat Hossain before the Chief Advisor that all paddle vessels, including PS Ostrich, would be preserved as heritage, no concrete preservation action has been taken by current authorities. Repeated attempts to contact the BIWTC Chairman for official clarification went completely unanswered. Waterway heritage advocates stress that urgent intervention is required to save these irreplaceable vessels from total loss, as commercial leasing without strict preservation safeguards continues to threaten the physical integrity of these century-old maritime artifacts.